Activation energy for isothermal martensite in ferrous alloys

The experimental information on isothermal α martensite in ferrous alloys is reviewed. From the kinetics one can clearly distinguish between three groups of alloys yielding isothermal martensite. The first group contains high alloy steels with a low Ms temperature. They form isothermal martensite with a temperature dependence corresponding to a very low activation energy, possibly 7 kJ/mol. The second group contains steels with an appreciable amount of carbon. Its rate of formation of isothermal martensite can be explained by assuming that it is triggered by submicroscopic plates of bainite formed with a rate controlled by carbon diffusion. The third group contains FeNi alloys with up to about 25% Ni. There the temperature dependence corresponds to an activation energy of about 80 kJ/mol. It is proposed that their transformation is related to the transformation causing plateau II in experiments with very rapid cooling, a transformation which has previously been proposed to be related to the formation of bainite.