Technical Notes - Nucleation of Phase Transformations (Metals Tech., Aug. 1948, TN 5)

The concepts of nucleation and of growth have adequately described the isothermal phase transformations to which they have been applied.ls2 However, these concepts have not yet been used successfully to describe the kinetics of a number of transformations that are not observed to take place isothermally. A typical reaction of this type is the austenite to martensite transformation in steels, for which the new phase appears only during cooling of the parent phase. If the cooling is interrupted, transformation ceases; yet had the cooling continued, transformation would also have continued. Nuclei of a new phase do not leap into existence all at once by the simultaneous cooperation of a large number of atoms or molecules of the parent phase; rather they are formed at finite rates by gaining or losing atoms one at a time from the surrounding materiaL3,4 Further thermo-dynamic considerations require a finite concentration of small transitory nuclei of all unstable phases to exist at equilibrium in a stable phase.= For steel in particular, nuclei of ferrite (a iron) exist at equilibrium in austenite (y iron) at temperatures where austenite is the stable phase. If a high-temperature phase a be cooled sufficiently rapidly from temperature TI above the a-ß equilibrium temperature To, to temperature T-1 below To where ß is the stable phase, the equilibrium distribution of ß nuclei corresponding to the high temperature will be retained. There are two limiting possibilities of particular interest: I. The steady state rate of nucleation of ß may be appreciable at T_1, and may require a concentration of sub-critical nuclei exceeding that retained from the high temperature. Time will be required then for the concentration of nuclei to build up to the steady state value, and an induction period will be observed during which the rate of nucleation will increase to the steady state value. 2. The steady state rate of nucleation of ß may be negligible at T-l, while the critical size for continuous growth of ß nuclei, which decreases with increased subcooling of the a phase, may reach a value so small that some. of the retained high-temperature nu-