A field-ion study of carbide particle coarsening in an alloy steel

Abstract

This paper describes a study of particle coarsening in an isothermally transformed Fe-2·0% V-0·2% C alloy steel which makes use of the background metallography of an earlier paper (Schwartz, Davenport and Ralph 1968). The method used to obtain the particle size distributions has been described previously (Schwartz and Ralph 1969). The particle coarsening followed a time-dependent relationship where the square of the mean carbide particle edge size is linear with time for the temperatures investigated (600–680°C). This is in qualitative agreement with the theoretical predictions of a coarsening process whose rate is controlled by mass transfer at the particle/matrix interfaces.