Experimental Determination of Continuous Cooling Transformation Diagrams of Hot-Rolled Heat Treatable Steel Plates Using Quenching Dilatometry

This article outlines the use of quenching dilatometry in phase transformation kinetics research in steels under continuous cooling conditions. For this purpose, the phase transformation behavior of a hot-rolled heat treatable steel was investigated over the cooling rate range of 0.1 to 200 °C/s. The start and finish points of the austenite transformation were identified from the dilatometric curves and then the continuous cooling transformation (CCT) diagrams were constructed. The experimental CCT diagrams were verified by microstructural characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Vickers micro-hardness. In general, results revealed that the quenching dilatometry technique is a powerful tool for the characterization and study of solid-solid phase transformations in steels. For cooling rates between 200 and 25 °C/s the final microstructure consists on plate-like martensite with the highest hardness values. By contrast, a mixture of phases of ferrite, bainite and pearlite predominated for slower cooling rates (10-0.1 °C/s).