Abstract
Recent work on the mechanism of the bainite transformation has shown that the extent of transformation to bainitic ferrite, and the carbon content of the remaining austenite, can be estimated thermodynamically. This paper is concerned with the application of this recent work to the development of a quantitative relationship between the composition and some important mechanical properties of silicon containing steels, which can be transformed isothermally to an aggregate of bainitic ferrite and carbon enriched retained austenite only. It is demonstrated that the method has predictive capabilities, and forms the basis of further work (Part 2 of this study) on the theoretical design, optimization, and testing of two promising steel compositions.
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