Effect of Oxide Particles on Ferrite Phase Transformation in Low Carbon Micro-alloyed Steels

The mechanism of ferrite nucleation induced by different oxide particles was studied in this article. The inclusion insertion experiment as a simulated experiment was carried out using different oxide powders on a thermal simulator under certain heat treatment conditions. The main results showed that the chemical influences of oxide particles on ferrite nucleation are difficult to occur under solid-phase transformation conditions. The change of microstructure near the oxide particles may be related to the effect of thermal properties of oxide particles. Heat conduction performance of oxide particles may cause slower heat dissipation around the oxide particles, resulting in the variation of temperature gradient near the oxide particles. This temperature gradient may lead to the increasing diffusion of carbon atoms, which increases the driving force of ferrite nucleation and growth. The effect of thermal properties of oxide particles on ferrite phase transformation seems to provide a new insight for the study of the mechanism of acicular ferrite nucleation induced by inclusions in low carbon steels.