Experimental investigation on effect of cooling rate on carbide precipitation during solidification of high manganese steel

In order to elucidate the effect of cooling rate on the carbide formation during the solidification process of high manganese steel Mn13, the solidification process is artificially divided into two stages, namely the liquid-solid phase transition stage and solid-state cooling stage. The final Mn13 samples with different cooling rates are used to the analysis of solidification structure and carbides by high-temperature confocal microscopy (HTCLSM), optical microscopy (OM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The result shows that the change of cooling rate at the liquid-solid phase transition stage has a great influence on the solidification structure and carbide precipitation. At this stage, with the increase of cooling rate from 0.2 °C/s to 5.0 °C/s, the dendrite structure is obviously refined, and the secondary dendrite arm spacing and cooling rate are satisfied with the relationship: λ Π = 54.14 × v − 0.33 . Also, the average grain size in the Mn13 sample decreases from 549 μm to 346 μm, and the aspect ratio of gains in the Mn13 sample increases from 1.7 to 2.0. Moreover, the distribution of carbide in the interdendritic regions and grain boundaries increases, and the morphology of carbide at the grain boundary change from block to dendrite. But it seems that the change of cooling rate from 1 °C/s to 5.0 °C/s at the solid-state cooling stage has a slight effect on the secondary dendrite arm spacing, the average size and aspect ratio of the grain structure and the amount and morphology of carbide precipitation at the grain boundary.