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Niobium is an important alloying element in the design of heat-resistant ferritic stainless steels for automotive exhaust systems. When in solid solution, it improves both the high temperature strength and the resistance to thermal fatigue. However, it also forms several kinds of precipitates during service. These reactions have been modelled, taking into account the multicomponent nature of the diffusion process and allowing for capillarity effects. It has been possible to estimate not only the volume fractions but also the particle sizes for Fe 2 Nb (Laves phase) and Fe 3 Nb 3 C (M 6 C) carbide in a 19Cr-0.8Nb steel, with good agreement against experimental data.

The growth of niobium carbide in austenite involves the diffusion of both niobium and carbon. These elements diffuse at very different rates. A model is presented for the overall transformation kinetics of niobium carbide precipitation in austenite that takes into account the multicomponent nature of the diffusion process while at the same time allows for the curvature of the transformation front. The inclusion of the curvature (capillarity) effect has, in a numerical scheme, permitted the precipitation and coarsening reactions to be treated in a single model. The model is compared with published experimental data.MST/4716

Bainite is of considerable importance in the design of high strength steels. There are two types of morphologies, upper and lower bainite. In upper bainite, cementite forms between adjacent bainitic ferrite plates. In certain steels, however, the cementite reaction is suppressed so that carbon-enriched austenite remains untransformed between bainitic ferrite plates. In lower bainite, cementite also has the opportunity to precipitate within bainitic ferrite plates. In order to model the development of these microstructures, it is necessary to treat the simultaneous formation of both the ferritic and carbide components of the microstructure. A theory has been developed to do exactly this, enabling the estimation of the phase fractions, the cementite particle size and the transition from upper to lower bainite. The results have been compared against experimental data.KEY WORDS: simultaneous reaction; upper/lower bainite; bainitic ferrite; cementite; austenite.

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