Researching nitrogen solubility in nitrogen-containing austenitic steels at melting and recrystallization by CALPHAD method

Abstract

The CALPHAD method has been employed to compose thermodynamic description of the Fe–Cr–Mn–Ni–Si–C–N system. Using an algorithm based on finding a global minimum of Gibbs energy, the calculations of system phase composition were performed in the temperature range from 1750°C to hardening and in the range of compositions corresponding to 04Kh20N6G11M2AFB steel. Calculations showed that at temperatures above liquidus line, Cr and Mn increase nitrogen solubility in the melt, while Ni and Si reduce it. With an increase in the content of Cr, Mn, Ni, and Si in steel in the studied composition range, both liquidus and solidus temperature decrease. The degree of influence on these temperatures of Cr, Mn, Ni and Si within the steel grade is different and ranges from ~3 to ~14°C. Calculations taking into account the possibility of nitrogen transfer between steel and the atmosphere of air showed that the amount of fixed nitrogen in the alloy under study varies, depending on the composition of the steel and temperature, from ~0.3 to ~0.6 wt%. As the temperature decreases from liquidus to solidus, the amount of fixed nitrogen increases, with the exception of those steel compositions when ferrite and not austenite is released from the liquid phase.