2022 Volume 62 Issue 2 Pages 282-290
To gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic accommodation mechanism of the internal stress in pearlite originating from the lattice misfit between ferrite and cementite phases, the lattice parameter ratios of cementite, bθ/aθ and cθ/aθ, were locally analyzed in detail using the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. The EBSD analysis revealed that the lattice parameter ratios of the cementite lamellae clearly differed from those of the spheroidized cementite particles, indicating that pearlite has a certain amount of internal stress as long as it maintains a lamellar structure. The internal stress in pearlite gradually decreased during the isothermal holding at 923 K after the pearlitic transformation due to the interfacial atomic diffusion of Fe atoms. However, a comparison with the theoretical values obtained from the Pitsch-Petch orientation relationship revealed that a large amount of internal stress had been already accommodated during the pearlitic transformation by the introduction of misfit dislocations and structural ledges on ferrite/cementite lamellar interfaces, i.e., the internal stress of pearlite is dynamically reduced by two different processes; built-in accommodation upon pearlitic transformation and additional time-dependent relaxation after pearlitic transformation. On the other hand, the analysis of the EBSD and neutron diffraction results yielded intriguingly different lattice parameters of cementite, indicating that various crystallographic orientation relationships between ferrite and cementite coexist in pearlite. Furthermore, the elastic strain energy analysis suggests that the invariant-line criterion on the ferrite/cementite interface plays an important role for the selection of orientation relationships in pearlite.
