Deviations from cooperative growth mode during eutectoid transformation: Insights from a phase-field approach

The non-cooperative eutectoid transformation relies on the presence of pre-existing cementite particles in the parent austenitic phase and yields a product, popularly known as the divorced eutectoid. Under isothermal conditions, two of the important parameters that influence the transformation mechanism and determine the final morphology are undercooling (below the A1 temperature) and interparticle spacing. Although the criteria that govern the morphological transition from lamellar to divorced is experimentally well established, numerical studies giving a detailed exposition of the non-cooperative transformation mechanism have not been reported extensively. In the present work, we employ a multiphase-field model that uses thermodynamic information from the CALPHAD database to numerically simulate the pulling-away of the advancing ferrite–austenite interface from cementite, which results in a transition from lamellar to divorced eutectoid morphology in Fe–C alloy. We also identify the onset of a concurrent growth and coarsening regime at small interparticle spacing and low undercooling. We analyze the simulation results to unravel the essential physics behind this complex spatial and temporal evolution pathway and amend the existing criteria by constructing a Lamellar-Divorced-Coarsening (LDC) map.