The interphase precipitation reaction in HSLA steels

An in-depth study of the interphase precipitation reaction in model vanadium steels has shown that the reaction may not just be confined to HSLA steels, but may be part of a general class of banded microstructures which are common to both eutectoid and eutectic systems. A new mass transport theory has been developed in which the interphase precipitation reaction in Fe-C-V steels is treated as a generalized type of cooperative growth. In addition to predicting the spacings of sheets of interphase precipitates and the precipitate sizes in steels, this theory is providing new insights into the origin of banded structures occurring in eutectic systems at solid-liquid interface boundary velocities faster than those required for coupled growth, but slower than those required to produce the extended metastable solid solution.