Effect of Austempering on Plastic Behavior of Some Austempered Ductile Iron Alloys

A numerical description relating microstructure to elastic and plastic deformation behavior would make it possible to simulate the mechanical behavior of complex cast components with tailored material properties. Limited work and data, however, have been published regarding the connection between microstructure and plastic behavior of austempered ductile irons (ADIs). In the current work, the effects of austempering temperature and austempering time on the strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent of the Hollomon equation were investigated for two ADI alloys. The results show that the plastic behavior is highly dependent on the combination of austempering temperature and austempering time. It was found that as the austempering temperature increases, both the strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent initially decrease, but after reaching a minimum at the critical austempering temperature, they show a plateau or an increase. The effect of the austempering time on the plastic behavior depends on the austempering temperature. At low austempering temperatures, the strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent decrease with increased austempering time, whereas at higher austempering temperatures, they show little time dependence. These relations are explained by the microstructural transformations that take place during the austempering heat treatment.