Calculation of ductility from pearlite microstructure

ABSTRACT

Ductility in drawn pearlitic steels’ wire is dependent on microstructural features, carbon concentration, transformation temperature and strain. An extensive literature review is performed and investigated that there are conflicting results about the effect of interlamellar spacing, pearlite colony size and prior-austenitic grain size on the toughness of these steels. This may be attributed to the differences in compositions, heat treatment, drawing conditions, the methodology applied for measuring microstructural entities and inaccuracy in measurements. Currently, a neural network model is created to correlate the complex relationship between tensile ductility with its influencing parameters in a variety of cold drawn pearlitic steels. The model has been applied to confirm that the calculations are reasonable in the context of metallurgical theories and other data published in the literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Microstructure
• neural network
• ductility
• pearlite
• cementite dissolution

Acknowledgements

TEM experiments were carried out at CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur when the author was previously employed as a Scientist during 2004–2014. I am extremely grateful to Professor Sir H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia, Phase Transformation and Complex Properties Research Group, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, UK for the provision of Neuromat Neural Network software for the present analysis. I would also like to thank Professor Sir H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia for the provision of facilities for the revision of the manuscript. The insightful suggestions, comments and strong recommendations about the manuscript by the anonymous reviewers are also highly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.