A model for converting thermal analysis to volume fraction of high carbon bearing steels during low-temperature tempering

Quantitative prediction of phase content is of great importance to control and optimize the heat treat-ment process of steels.In this work,a model for predicting the phase content of tempered high carbon steels was proposed by taking a martensitic 100Cr6 bearing steel as a model case.The microstructural transformations during tempering were studied using thermal analysis,transmission electron microscopy(TEM),and X-ray diffraction(XRD).Kinetics analysis of thermal evolution by employing the isoconver-sional method,and assisted by TEM and XRD characterization,were performed to quantitatively estimate the volume fractions of different phases after tempering.A series of isothermal tempering experiments were designed to verify the model.The predicted results were in good agreement with the experimental results of XRD and electrolytic extraction measurements.