Modelling the microstructure of polycrystalline austenite-martensite steels

A method based on the kinetics of crystal growth has been developed and applied to the computation of 3D microstrucuture in polycrystaline austenite-matensite steels. The detailed crystallography of the transformation and the effect of austenite grain size on the martensite-start temperature are employed to simulate a realistic martensitic microstrucuture. The interaction energy based on the plastic work model of Patel and Cohen is taken into account to model the variant selection under external system of applied stresses. The method has been integrated to the homogeneous deformation theory for computation of microstructure evolution in thermomechanical processing