Dear Mrinmoy Sinha,

According to the iron-carbon phase diagram, pearlite formation is supposed to be suppressed totally if the C concentration is

Dear Mrinmoy Sinha,

According to the iron-carbon phase diagram, pearlite formation is supposed to be suppressed totally if the C concentration is

Hi Mrinmoy Sinha,

I agree with Arka about the possible microstructural developments. Here are some additional considerations. The isothermal holding you mentioned should dissolve the iron carbides and disperse the carbon, depending on the temperature. You may have other carbide forming elements such as titanium, niobium, vanadium, chromium, tungsten or molybdenum. These elements likely have a higher affinity for the carbon than the iron. Upon cooling, any free carbon would likely form a carbide other than iron carbide with one of these other elements. These carbides may be very small and difficult to resolve in SEM to perform EDS or even WDS. You might investigate carbide extraction techniques (http://www.steeldata.info/carbides/demo/help/extraction.html) or TEM techniques to analyze carbides.

Best wishes,

Nathan

Hello N.T. Switzner

Thank you for your valuable suggestions. The TEM analysis only revealed bainite laths. Maybe as the pearlite and widmanstatten ferrite structure are comparatively larger in size. The TEM was unable to detect it. I have acquired an EBSD scan. Can you please suggest me techniques in TSL OIM Analysis 7 to characterize the phases.