A Phase-Field Study on Spinodal Decomposition of Ferrite of Fe-Cr-Ni Stainless Steels during Thermal Ageing and Annealing

doi:10.11901/1005.3093.2019.456

Chinese Journal of Materials Research

2020, Vol. 34

Issue (5): 328-336 DOI: 10.11901/1005.3093.2019.456

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A Phase-Field Study on Spinodal Decomposition of Ferrite of Fe-Cr-Ni Stainless Steels during Thermal Ageing and Annealing

SHI Jiaqing¹, XUE Fei², PENG Qunjia², SHEN Yao¹(

)

1.School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
2.Suzhou Nuclear Power Research Institute, Suzhou 215004, China

Cite this article:

SHI Jiaqing, XUE Fei, PENG Qunjia, SHEN Yao. A Phase-Field Study on Spinodal Decomposition of Ferrite of Fe-Cr-Ni Stainless Steels during Thermal Ageing and Annealing. Chinese Journal of Materials Research, 2020, 34(5): 328-336.

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Abstract

In order to investigate the evolution of spinodal decomposition during ageing and annealing, a phase-field model based on Cahn-Hilliard equation has been developed to simulate the microstructure evolution in ferrite of Fe-Cr-Ni stainless steels. The simulation results reveal the formation of inter-connected α' phase during thermal ageing, and the increase of wavelength and amplitude of Cr concentration fluctuation with ageing time. During the subsequent annealing treatment, it is found that α' phase dissolves into the matrix, and the wavelength continues to increase, while the amplitude starts to decrease. The simulation results also indicate that the nano-indentation hardness is positively associated with the amplitude of concentration fluctuation. And the annealing time needed for recovery of spinodal decomposition (dissolving of α' phase) is reduced by increasing annealing temperature remarkably. There is an Arrhenius-type relation between the recovery time and the annealing temperature.

Key words: metallic materials spinodal decomposition phase-field method thermal ageing annealing

Received: 24 September 2019

ZTFLH:

TG142.1

Fund: National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFB0702201)

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	Jiaqing SHI
	Fei XUE
	Qunjia PENG
	Yao SHEN

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https://www.cjmr.org/EN/10.11901/1005.3093.2019.456 OR https://www.cjmr.org/EN/Y2020/V34/I5/328

Descriptions	Parameters	Values
Temperature/K	T	683(ageing), 823(annealing)^[19]
Average Cr concentration in ferrite/%, atomic fraction	$c 0$	29.43^[19]
Average Ni concentration in ferrite /%, atomic fraction	$c N i$	3.00^[19]
Gas constant/J·mol^-1·K^-1	R	8.314
Molar volume /m³·mol^-1	$V m$	7.125×10^-6
Fractional linear expansion per unit Cr composition	$η$	0.00614^[44]
Young's modulus/GPa	E	200
Poisson's ratio	$μ$	0.28
Interatomic distance/nm	$r 0$	0.2482^[45]
Adjustable parameter related to diffusion	$d$	10.7
Diffusion coefficient of Fe/m²·s^-1	$D F e$	$1.0 × 10 - 4 e x p (- 294 ? k J ? m o l - 1 R T)$ ^[40]
Diffusion coefficient of Cr/m²·s^-1	$D C r$	$0.2 × 10 - 4 e x p (- 308 ? k J ? m o l - 1 R T)$ ^[40]

Table 1 Parameters used in the phase-field model

Fig.1 Simulated Cr distribution in ferrite of 308L stainless steel weld metal for different ageing or annealing times with 35% Cr (atomic fraction) iso-concentration surfaces (a1) unaged, (a2) 1000 h aged, (a3) 3000 h aged, (a4) 5000 h aged, (a5) 7000 h aged, (b1) 0.3 h annealed, (b2) 0.7 h annealed, (b3) 1.0 h annealed, (b4) 1.23 h annealed, (b5) 2.35 h annealed

Fig.2 35%(atomic fraction)Cr iso-concentration surfaces obtained by APT from reference [19], the volumes are 74 nm×74 nm×51 nm, 40 nm×40 nm×100 nm, 30 nm×30 nm×90 nm, respectively. (a)unaged, (b) 7000 h aged, (c)1 h annealed

Fig.3 Simulated 1D composition profiles (a1～a3) and concentration frequency distributions (b1～b3) compared with experimental results^[19], the red solid line in a3: smoothed 1D composition profile (a1, b1) unaged, (a2, b2) 7000 h aged, (a3, b3) 1 h annealed

Fig.4 Simulated wavelength of the Cr concentration fluctuation as a function of ageing (a) or annealing time (b), compared with experimental values (308L, star symbols)^[19]

Fig.5 Simulated amplitude of the Cr concentration fluctuation as a function of ageing (a) or annealing time (b), compared with experimental values (308L, star symbols)^[19]

Fig.6 Simulated wavelength (a) and amplitude (b) of the Cr concentration fluctuation as functions of ageing time, compared with experimental values (CF3M, star symbols)^[7]. Note $c 0$ =27.38%(atomic fraction)， $c N i$ =5.42%(atomic fraction)，T=623 K in this case.

Fig.7 Increase in yield strength of ferrite calculated by Eq.(9)(the black dashed line)and increase in nanoindentation hardness of ferrite from reference [48] vs ageing time (star symbols), the red solid line: $? H I N$ curve fitted with hyperbolic tangent function

Fig.8 Simulated results of annealing time needed for recovery vs ageing time (a), and natural logarithm of annealing time needed for recovery vs reciprocal of annealing temperature (b)

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