Analysis of different approaches to model the austempering heat treatment of ductile irons

Austempered ductile iron is a metallic alloy of technological interest. Currently, the part design is added by means of simulations performed by using different types of models. This work aims at comparing three models respectively based on the Avrami's equation, spherical representative volume elements, and cellular automata; all of them are able to compute the phase evolutions during the ausferritic and martensitic transformations. The models are employed to reproduce the experimental heat treatments where their strongness and weakness are discussed.