Alignment of ferrite grains during austenite to ferrite transformation in a high magnetic field

Abstract

Effects of a high magnetic field on austenite to ferrite transformation behavior were investigated in Nb containing steel. It was found that the isothermal ferrite transformation was accelerated by applying a magnetic field, mainly due to an increase in the nucleation rate of ferrite and no fundamental change in the transformed structure was observed. Recently, Shimotomai et al. showed that an aligned, two-phase structure is obtained by a reverse-transformation from lath martensite in a magnetic field. Considering the conditions of this heat treatment, it is expected that the aligned structure can also be formed in austenite to ferrite transformation. In this paper, the alignment of ferrite grains during austenite to ferrite transformation in a high magnetic field is reported.