Short-range order and strain aging of Hadfield steel

The Mossbauer spectra of carbon manganese austenite are analyzed using different values of the tensor of the electric-field gradients for different configurations of interstitial atoms around iron atoms. The asquenched steel is characterized by a short-range order in the arrangement of carbon atoms. Filing of the asquenched steel destroys the regions of short-range order of carbon, and the steel is hardened according to the well-known Fischer mechanism. Deformation by filing initiates steel aging at room temperature: after a ten-year storage, a ferromagnetic α phase is fixed in the structure of austenite