CHAPTER 5

Phase Transformations
in Metals
 Learning Objectives

After learning this topic, student will be able to:

Design a heat treatment that will produce a specified
microstructure by given the isothermal transformation
(or continuous cooling transformation) diagram for
some iron-carbon alloy
 Why should you learn PHASE
TRANSFORMATIONS?
• If you want to be a metallurgist, or most other types of materials engineer,
one’s main activity is to manipulate the structure of materials to control
their properties.
• This manipulation involves the selection of the material itself and the ways
in which this is processed.
• Thus processing - structure - property relationships lie at the heart of
metallurgy and other branches of materials science/engineering.
• One of the principal tools (arguably the most important tool) for controlling
the structure of materials, is to use processing (heating, forming etc.)
techniques to manipulate the phases that are present in the material and
how these are distributed.
 What are Phase Transformations?
Why Do These Matter?
• As was noted in last chapter, pure iron has three different solid phases (ferrite,
austenite, cementite) at different temperatures.
• Thus, as austenite is heated from room-temperature to above its melting point, the
following changes in phase occur:
austenite transforms to pearlite;
austenite transforms to bainite;
austenite transforms to martensite.
• Each of these changes is an example of a “phase transformation”.
• The key point is that, by controlling phase transformations, the nature of the final
microstructure of the material can be controlled. Hence manipulating phase
transformations is a major tool for controlling the properties of metals and alloys.
 Austenite (g)

slow rapid
moderate cool
cool quench

Pearlite Bainite Martensite

martensite
Strength

Ductility
bainite
pearlite
General Trends
 BASIC CONCEPTS
Phase transformation involves:
• Nucleation - formation of small particles (nuclei) of the new phase.
- often formed at grain boundaries.
• Growth of new phase at the expense of the original phase

S-shape curve: percent of

material transformed vs. the
logarithm of time.
Phase transformations that involve a change
in the microstructure can occur through:
• Diffusion-dependent with no change in composition or number
of phases present (melting/solidification of pure metal,
allotropic transformations, recrystallization)
• Diffusion-dependent but changes in composition or number of
phase (eutectoid transformations)
• Diffusionless → metastable phase by small displacements of
atoms in structure
 Isothermal Transformation (or TTT) Diagrams
(Temperature, Time and % Transformation)

• plots of temperature vs the logarithm of time,

• denoting the transformations of an austenitized alloy as
it undergoes a heat treatment.
• The transformation temperature affects the fitness of the
structure, the time required for transformation and
including the arrangement of the phases.
 100
T = 675°C
% transformed
y,
50

0
1 10 2 10 4 time (s)
T(°C)
Austenite (stable)
TE (727C)
700 Austenite
(unstable)

600 Pearlite

isothermal transformation at 675°C

500

400
time (s)
2 3 4
1 10 10 10 10 10 5
Adapted from Fig. 10.13,Callister 7e.
(Fig. 10.13 adapted from H. Boyer (Ed.) Atlas of Isothermal Transformation and Cooling Transformation Diagrams, American Society
for Metals, 1977, p. 369.)
 • Higher T→ S-shaped curves
shifted to longer times 
transformation dominated
by nucleation
• The higher the temperature
or the longer the time,
the greater is the percentage
of austenite transformed to
pearlite
Figure: Austenite-to-pearlite
transformation of iron-carbon alloy as a
function of time and temperature
• For each temperature, there
is a minimum time for the
transformation to begin;
defines as critical cooling
rate
• With longer times, austenite
begins to transform into
pearlite
• Thickness of ferrite
and cementite layers
in pearlite is ~ 8:1.
Absolute layer
thickness depends
on temperature of
transformation.
• Higher temperature
→ thicker layers.
 Formation of Pearlite, Bainite, Martensite

• The nature of martensite

transformation can best be
understood using the TTT curve for
eutectoid steel as shown in the
figure.
• The TTT curve shows how cooling
rate affects the transformation of
austenite into various possible
phases.
• The phases can be divided between:
➢ alternative forms of ferrite and
cementite
➢ martensite
Figure: TTT Diagram and
microstructures obtained by
different types of cooling
rates
800
Austenite
727 eutectic temperature

Austenite + Pearlite
600 Pearlite
pearlite/bainite boundary
Bainite
Austenite + Bainite
Austenite
50%
400
Martensite (start)
M (50%)
M (90%)
200

0
0.1 10 103 105
time (s)
800
A

A+P
600 P

B A+B
A
50%
400
M (start)
M (50%)
M (90%)
200

0
0.1 10 103 105
time (s)
 The Phases of Steel –
Bainite
• If steel heated above the austenite phase
is first rapidly cooled and then followed by
a much slower cooling rate, the result is
bainite .
• Bainite forms between 420 and 1000°F
(215 and 540°C).
• The contents of bainite are similar to
pearlite. Both contain ferrite and
cementite phases.
• Bainite is useful because it is stronger than
Figure 9: pearlite, but it still retains the same
Bainite formation requires rapid cooling
ductility.
followed by more gradual cooling
 The Phases of Steel - Martensite
• If steel heated above the austenite
phase is rapidly cooled all the way to
room temperature, another unique
phase called martensite develops.
• Martensite is not shown in the
equilibrium phase diagram of the iron-
carbon system because phases such as
ferrite, cementite, and austenite are
more chemically stable at any
composition and temperature
• The crystals have body-centred
Figure 10: tetragonal (BCT) symmetry.
Martensite formation requires very rapid
cooling
a) Sketch the TTT diagram for an eutectoid composition steel
(0.77% C) and then sketch a path on this diagram to produce the
following microstructure.
i. A: time-temperature path that will produce 100% pearlite
ii. B: time-temperature path that will produce 100% martensite
iii. C: time-temperature path that will produce 100% bainite
iv. D: time-temperature path that will produce 50% bainite and 50%
martensite
v. E: time-temperature path that will produce 50% pearlite and 50%
martensite