Carbon solute drag effect on the growth of carbon supersaturated bainitic ferrite: Modeling and experimental validations

The carbon partitioning and lengthening rate of bainitic ferrite (α_b) are excellent experimental parameters to estimate our level of understanding of the mechanism of bainitic transformation from a continuum perspective and our ability to capture it in analytical expressions. For Fe-C alloys and relatively simple steels the classical Zener-Hillert theory captures the bainitic transformation rather well but mispredicts the level of carbon in solution in the bainite and overestimates the lengthening rates for transformations at lower temperatures. To address this issue, this paper presents a new thermo-kinetic model based on the Zener-Hillert theory and the Gibbs energy balance concept to simulate the lengthening behavior of α_b in the Fe-C and low alloyed steels. The model incorporates the effect of the temperature dependent carbon diffusion within the migrating interface via a temperature dependent ferrite/austenite interfacial energy and a temperature dependent diffusion coefficient but does not impose local equilibrium across the interface. The good agreement between the model predictions and nine sets of published experiments indicates that both the carbon supersaturation in α_b and the slower lengthening rate are caused by carbon diffusion within the migrating interface. It is found that the degree of carbon supersaturation in α_b increases significantly with decreasing temperature. Consequently, the enhanced carbon solute drag effect, resulting from carbon diffusion within the interface, strongly retards the lengthening rates of α_b at lower temperatures. Transformation strain is shown to have a modest effect on the lengthening rates but to lower the degree of carbon supersaturation.