Bowing mechanism for interphase boundary migration in alloy steels

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of interfacially nucleated precipitation on the mobility of high-energy interphase boundaries. A simple energy balance criterion has been used to model the bowing of interphase boundaries between pinning precipitates, and the results indicate that there exists a critical precipitate spacing below which it is not energetically feasible for a bowing mechanism to operate. Good qualitative agreement between calculated and observed critical precipitate spacings is obtained, and it is shown that a ‘quasiledge’ mechanism is necessary for boundary migration when the precipitate spacing on the boundary falls below this critical value.