The crystallography of bainite in a medium-carbon steel containing Si, Mn, and Mo

Abstract

A composite microstructure consisting of upper bainite laths and lower bainite plates, both carbide-free, plate (twinned) martensite, and carbon-enriched retained austenite, was produced by air-cooling a medium-carbon alloy steel (0.55 pct C, 1.35 pct Si, 0.78 pct Mn, 0.45 pct Mo) from 900 °C. Well-defined midribs and subunits were found to be associated with both the upper bainite laths and lower bainite plates, clearly showing that the two kinds of bainite growvia a sympathetic nucleation and growth process. The orientation relationship between the bainite and austenite, as determined by electron diffraction, showed that the close-packed planes in the two phases were separated by 0.5 deg and the close-packed directions were 1.9 apart. The habit plane determined from the midrib was (5 127)_f, about 20 deg away from the nearly parallel close-packed planes (111)_f/(011)_b. The experimentally determined orientation relation-ship and habit plane (as defined by the midrib) were in good agreement with the predictions of the phenomenological theory of martensite crystallography.