Effects of chemical composition and austenite deformation on the onset of ferrite formation for arbitrary cooling paths

Abstract We present a computational method for calculating the phase transformation start for arbitrary cooling paths and for different steel compositions after thermomechanical treatments. We apply the method to quantitatively estimate how much austenite deformation and how many different alloying elements affect the transformation start at different temperatures. The calculations are done for recrystallized steel as well as strain hardened steel, and the results are compared. The method is parameterized using continuous cooling transformation (CCT) data as an input, and it can be easily adapted for different thermomechanical treatments when corresponding CCT data is available. The analysis can also be used to obtain estimates for the range of values for parameters in more detailed microstructure models