Physical mechanisms of thermal-diffusivity depth-profile generation in a hardened low-alloy Mn, Si, Cr, Mo steel reconstructed by photothermal radiometry

It is well established that in hardened steels thermal-diffusivity broadly anticorrelates with microhardness, allowing thermal-wave depth profilometry to be used as a tool to measure microhardness profiles. Nevertheless, the physical mechanisms for this anticorrelation have not been well understood. In this work, the thermal-diffusivity profiles of rough, hardened industrial steels were reconstructed after the elimination of roughness effects from the experimental data. Carburizing and quenching are widely used for the heat treatment of steel components, and it is important to understand their effects on thermal-diffusivity profiles. A thorough examination of the actual mechanism by which thermal-diffusivity depth profiles are affected by first carburizing and then quenching AISI-8620 steels was performed. It was concluded that the variation of thermal diffusivity with depth is dominated by the carbon concentration profile, whereas the absolute value of the thermal diffusivity is a function of microstructure.