INFLUENCE OF ABNORMAL AUSTENITE GRAIN GRAIN GROWTH IN QUENCHED ABNT 5135 STEEL

Abstract

Grain size in the steels is a relevant aspect in quenching and tempering heat treatments. It is known that high austenitizing temperature and long time provide an increase in austenitic grain sizes. Likewise, after hardening of low alloy steel, the microstructure consists of martensite and a volume fraction of retained austenite. This paper evaluates the influence of austenite grain size on the volume fraction of retained austenite measured by metallographic analyses and X-ray diffraction. The Mi and Mf temperatures were calculated using an empirical equation and experimentally determined by differential thermal analysis. The mechanical behavior of the steel was evaluated by Vickers microhardness testing. Differently from other results published in the literature that steel hardenability increases with the austenite grain size, it was observed that the increase in austenite grain promotes greater volume fraction of retained austenite after water quenching.

Keywords

• Martensite; Retained austenite; Athermal martensite; Grain growth.