Magnetic Barkhausen Noise in quenched carburized steels

Steels with different carbon content, 0.11%C and 0.48%C were submitted to a heat treatment for carburization in the surface. The samples were analyzed after several types of heat treatment, including quenching for producing martensite. The Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN) is directly related to the microstructure. Samples with lower carbon content, have ferrite, a constituent where domain walls can move freely and present higher amplitude in the envelope of MBN. It is also found that the MBN peaks are quite distinct for the samples with martensite, which have lower permeability, and the results suggest that domain rotation contributes as mechanism for reversal of magnetization in martensite. The results also indicate that MBN is very suitable for monitoring the carburizing heat treatment.