Morphology, Nature and Formation Mechanism of Packet Plate Martensite in Medium and High Carbon Steels

Abstract

The microstructures of 11 kinds of commercial steels quenched from high temperature were deeply studied by optical microscope and canning election microscope. It was proved that packet martensite in medium and high carbon steels is not lath martensite, but rather packet plate martensite. Through the analysis of crystallography，it was found that four change rules of crystal orientation may arise during the process of martensite transformation. Two inner interfaces spontaneously formed were only discovered in martensite transformation process: small-angel boundary (misorientation angle is 0 ~ 10º) and twin boundary (misorientation angle is 70º32’). The former mainly appeared in low carbon martensite, and the latter principally formed in medium and high carbon martensite. The twin boundary packet mechanism in medium and high carbon steels has made in detail in this paper.