Abstract:
The intragranular nucleation phenomena of ferrite in low carbon steels with oxides of CaO and CeO
2 were studied using a method of hot diffusion bonding. The experimental results showed that the fine intragranular acicular ferrite structure in low carbon steels with oxides of CaO and CeO
2 was induced by heterogeneous nucleation of ferrite plates at fine dispersed CaO and CeO
2 particles. There were large thermally induced strain regions in the neighbourhood of CaO and CeO
2. The presence of these regions provided dominant driving force for the nucleation of acicular ferrite, which led to multiple nucleations on the inclusion. Meanwhile a large quantity of new austenite/ferrite high energy interfaces formed, which provided the surface effect of the sympathetical nucleation. The optimum size of oxides for adequate nucleation of acicular ferrite was 0.1 to 0.6
μm.