In-Situ Studies of Intercritically Austempered Ductile Iron Using Neutron Diffraction

Abstract

Intercritically austempered ductile irons hold promise for applications requiring fatigue durability, excellent castability, low production energy requirements, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and excellent machinability. In the present study, four different ductile iron alloys, containing manganese and nickel as the primary austenite-stabilizing elements, were heat treated to obtain different quantities of austenite in the final microstructure. This paper reports the microstructures and phases present in these alloys. Further, lattice strains and diffraction elastic constants in various crystallographic directions and the transformation characteristics of the austenite as a function of applied stress were determined using in-situ loading with neutron diffraction at the second generation Neutron Residual Stress Facility (NRSF2) at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).