Thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics of the austenite-to-ferrite transformation under high magnetic field in medium carbon steel

The thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics of austenite-to-ferrite phase transformation in medium carbon steel in the high magnetic fields were investigated. Results showed that the magnetic field could obviously change the γ/α+γ phase equilibrium-by increasing the amount of ferrite obtained during cooling-and greatly accelerate the transformation. Thus the microstructure obtained under fast cooling with high magnetic field was still ferritic and pearlitic, while that obtained without the magnetic field under the same cooling conditions was bainitic. Exploration in this area contributes both to enriching the new theory on electromagnetic processing of materials (EPM) and in establishing new techniques for materials processing.