A thermodynamic evaluation of the Fe–Cr–C system

•The detailed literature survey of the experimental data for Fe–Cr–C system was made.•The Fe–Cr–C system was reassessed.•The recent descriptions for the metastable Fe7C3 and Fe23C6 carbides were used.•The present description is compatible with the recent description of the FeMnC system.

The availability of recent data on Gibbs energies of Fe7C3 and Fe23C6 based on ab initio calculations required the complete reassessment of the thermodynamic parameters in the Fe–Cr–C system. In order to perform the optimization process a detailed critical evaluation of the experimental literature data on the Fe–Cr–C system was made. The Calphad technique using a computerized optimization procedure (PARROT) was applied in the work. Thus, a new self-consistent thermodynamic description of the Fe–Cr–C system based on a detailed literature survey was obtained in the present work. The results are presented in a number of phase diagrams.

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