Dissemination of IT for the Promotion of Materials Science (DoITPoMS)

DoITPoMS Micrograph Library Full Record for Micrograph 279
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Full Record for Micrograph 279

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Micrograph no
279
Brief description
Fe, C 2, Mn 0.7 (wt%) steel, quenched, producing martensite and cracking
Keywords
alloy Link to MATTER Glossary entry for alloy, carbon, iron, martensite Link to MATTER Glossary entry for martensite, metal, quenching Link to MATTER Glossary entry for quenching, steel Link to MATTER Glossary entry for steel
Categories
Metal or alloy
System
Fe-C-X   Link to phase diagram
Composition
Fe, C 0.55, Mn 0.65 (wt%)
Standard codes
BS 070M55, formerly En 9
Reaction
Processing
Quenched
Applications
Sample preparation
Nital
Technique
Reflected light microscopy
Length bar
200 μm
Further information
This steel was quenched from the austenite phase field too rapidly for carbon to diffuse out and form cementite. This resulted in the formation of the brittle martensite phase. This phase is unable to accommodate volume changes plastically and may therefore fail, nucleating cracks as seen in this sample. The different colours in the micrograph are an artefact of the etching process.
Contributor
Dr R F Cochrane
Organisation
Department of Materials, University of Leeds
Date
04/09/02
Licence for re-use
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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