Cementites decomposition of a pearlitic ductile cast iron during graphitization annealing heat treatment was investigated.Fractographies and microstructures of heat treated samples were observed using a scanning electron microscope and mechanical properties were measured by a universal tensile test machine.The results indicated that during isothermal annealing at 750°C,the tensile strength of pearlitic ductile cast iron was increased to a peak value at 0.5h,and decreased gradually thereafter but the elongation was enhanced with the increase of annealing time.Moreover,the diffusion coefficient of carbon atoms could be approximately calculated as 0.56μm2/s that could be regarded as the shortrange diffusion.As the holding time was short(0.5h),diffusion of carbon atoms was incomplete and mainly occurred around the graphites where the morphology of cementites changed from fragmentized shape to granular shape.In addition,the ductile cast iron with tensile strength of 740MPa and elongation of 7% could be achieved after graphitization annealing heat treatment for 0.5h.Two principal factors should be taken into account.First,the decomposition of a small amount of cementites was beneficial for increasing the ductility up to elongation of 7%.Second,the diffusion of carbon atoms from cementites to graphites could improve the binding force between graphites and matrix,enhancing the tensile strength to 740 MPa.
Min-qiang GaoYing-dong QuGuang-long LiJun-hua YouRong-de Li
In this study, in order to investigate the influence of Cr element on the impact fracture process of ductile Ni-resistant alloyed iron at low temperature, different contents of Cr element were added to ductile Ni-resistant(DNR) austenitic alloyed iron. The experimental results show that Cr addition can increase the hardness of the DNR alloyed iron, but it has an destructive effect on low-temperature impact properties. Through the analysis of the dynamic load and absorbed energy of samples with different Cr contents in the impact fracture process, and the comparison of the impact fracture process at room and low temperatures, it reveals that Cr addition into the DNR alloyed iron can facilitate the formation of the carbide mixture in Mn23C6 and Cr23C6 with homogeneous and discontinuous distribution. Meanwhile, Cr addition also can improve the the maximum dynamic load and crack initiation energy at low temperature, but has no obvious effect on the yield behavior of the DNR alloyed iron in the impact fracture process. Compared with the impact crack propagation process at room temperature, the metastable propagation energy at low temperature declines significantly with an increase in Cr content. This is because the micro-cracks that caused by the carbides weaken the matrix, resulting in the decline of impact crack propagation resistance. The fracture analysis results also show that the impact fracture mechanism gradually transforms from ductile to brittle with an increase in Cr content at low temperature. It explains that too much Cr addition can lead to brittle fracture even though the austenitic matrix has a good toughness at low temperature.
Ke JiangYing-dong QuJun-hua YouRong-de LiQing-chun XiangYu-xiong Zhou
Different contents of Ni(0.3wt.%to 1.2wt.%)were added to the QT400-18L ductile iron to investigate the effect of Ni addition on the impact toughness of cast ductile irons at low temperatures.The impact toughnesses of the samples at room and low temperatures were tested.The microstructures and fractographs were observed.Results show that with the increase of Ni addition there is a general trend of refinement of the ferrite matrix while the nodule density shows no obvious change.When the Ni content is 0.7wt.%,the matrix structure is the refined ferrite with a very small fraction(about 2%)of pearlite near the eutectic cell boundaries.When the Ni content is further increased,the fraction of pearlite increases significantly and reaches more than 5%when 1.2wt.%Ni is added.The impact toughness at room temperature increases as the content of Ni increases from 0.3 wt.%to 0.7 wt.%,but decreases as the Ni content further increases to 1.2wt.%due to the increase of pearlite fraction.The maximum value of the impact work is 18.5 J at room temperature with 0.7wt.%Ni addition.The average value of the impact work is still more than 13 J even at-30℃.In addition,the fracture mechanism changes from ductile manner to brittleness as the testing temperature decreases from 20℃to-60℃.
