Analysis of the variation in nanohardness of pearlitic steel: Influence of the interplay between ferrite crystal orientation and cementite morphology

The influence of the relative orientation of the ferrite crystallite lattice and the cementite lamellae on the hardness of pearlitic steel has been investigated by a combination of nanoindentation and electron microscopy (electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)). Three pearlitic samples, each with a different interlamellar spacing, and one ferritic sample were nanoindented. Although the hardness of the ferritic sample is very similar at different spots on the sample, a large variation in hardness is obtained on each of the pearlitic samples. It has been found that this variation cannot be accounted for solely by the variation in interlamellar spacing and is related to differences in ferrite crystal orientation. As to explain the observed large variation in hardness, the ferrite crystal orientation was considered relative to the cementite lamellae orientation by calculation of the distance dislocations can glide between adjacent lamellae in the slip direction. However, no clear correlation was found for a scaling of this orientation factor with the hardness. Possible interpretations of this discrepancy are suggested.