Coarsening of cementite during tempering of a martensitic steel

Coarsening of cementite (M3C) in a martensitic steel alloy Fe–1C–1Cr (wt. %) during tempering at 700 °C was investigated by electron microscopy and kinetic modelling. It is shown that the large M3C carbides are mostly located at high-angle grain boundaries in the coarsening stage and simple kinetic simulations predict the experimentally observed mean size evolution well when grain boundary diffusion of Cr is taken into account. However, the particle size distribution of M3C maintain a log-normal distribution throughout the whole extended tempering process (5000 h at 700 °C), which indicates that a modified LSW distribution , as predicted by classical steady-state coarsening theory , is not fully adequate for practical purposes in tempering of martensitic steels.QC 20180821