Critical cooling rates of alloy steels for the nucleation of lamellar α martensite in a dynamic theory

Abstract

The existence of critical cooling rates for the beginning of rapid growth of lamellar crystals in alloy steels is considered as a consequence of the suppression of diffusion on spatial scale d corresponding to the transverse size of the initial excited state that appears in the elastic field of a dislocation center of nucleation. Theoretical estimates agree with the experimental results obtained for polycrystals with calibrated grain sizes. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2012.