Part X - The 1967 Howe Memorial Lecture – Iron and Steel Division - Nucleation and Growth of Martensite in Some Uranium-Chromium Alloys

The rate of nucleation and the rates of both lateral and longitudinal growth of martensite plates (needles) in b—a transformation were determined as a function of temperature, in various U-Cr alloys. The activation energies for nucleation and both modes of growth were calculated from the experimental results. The identical values for lateral and longitudinal growth clearly indicate that both are controlled by the WHITE,' Mott and Hines and Holdeen3 showed that characteristic martensite plates (needles) appear in U-Cr alloys during the transformation 8 —0 in the lower temperature range (up to -300°C). Holden pointed out that the rate of growth of the individual martensite plates under isothermal conditions is same mechanism. Lomer's suggestion that single-atom movement over subatomic distances controls the specially slow growth of martensite receives further support from the present kinetic study, which shows that the growth rate can be described quantitatively by known formulas for the growth rate in processes involving single-atom movement. very slow, and suggested that this is due to the slowness of the relief of the stresses engendered during the growth of the individual plates. lomer4 attributed the slow growth to the complexity of the atomic adjustment at the growing interface b/(u. In the present work the rates of nucleation and growth of martensite plates in U-Cr alloys were studied by direct observation, in order to elucidate the mechanism which controls their characteristic slow growth.