A complete qualitative characterization of the isothermal coarsening process in hypoeutectic lamellar cast iron is presented for the first time in this work. Interrupted solidification experiments were used to study the evolution of the dendritic austenite network under long term isothermal conditions. Cylindrical samples were re-melted and isothermally coarsened for times from 2 minutes to 6 days at 1175°C after dendritic coherence was reached. Micrographs from horizontal and vertical sections of the coarsened samples are presented. Complete fragmentation of the dendrite network and further rearrangement of the solid phase are reported as new behaviors in the coarsening process in lamellar cast iron. A linear increase in secondary dendrite arm spacing in agreement with the literature is observed in the first several samples confirming qualitative observations. A new model is proposed which describes the entire coarsening process observed in this investigation.

The morphological evolution of primary austenite in an industrial hypoeutectic lamellar cast iron was studied under isothermal conditions for coarsening times varying from 0 min to 96 h. The dendritic austenite structure formed during the primary solidification suffered major morphological changes during the isothermal coarsening process. After a sufficient coarsening time, dendrite fragmentation, globularization, and coalescence of austenite were studied using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. This study confirmed that the secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) is an inappropriate length scale to describe the primary austenite coarsening process for longer times. The application of shape independent quantitative parameters confirmed the reduction of the total interfacial area during microstructural coarsening. The modulus of the primary austenite, Mγ, which represents the volume-surface ratio for the austenite phase, and the spatial distribution of the austenite particles, measured as the nearest distance between the center of gravity of neighboring particles, Dγ, followed a linear relation with the cube root of coarsening time during the whole coarsening process. The mean curvature of the austenite interface, characterized through stereological relations, showed a linear relation to Mγ and Dγ, allowing the quantitative characterization and modeling of the complete coarsening process of primary austenite.

This paper presents an unconventional etching technique to reveal the microstructure in a hypoeutectic lamellar graphite iron that has been quenched after isothermal heat treatment in the proeutectic semi-solid temperature region. A technique for quantifying the dendrite microstructure using the aforementioned etching technique involving a combination of a raster graphics editor and an image analysis software is outlined. The agreement between this quantification technique with regard to volume fraction and surface area per unit volume of the dendritic austenite and corresponding point counting and line intercept techniques is analyzed. The etching technique was found useful but sporadic tinting of martensite was problematic. Some measurements showed significant systematic disagreement which correlated with the coarseness of the measured dendrites. Most systematic disagreement is attributed to difficulties in defining the dendrite boundary in the analogues and much of the random disagreement to easily identified discrepancies between the analogue and the micrograph.

The narrow production window for compacted graphite iron material (CGI) drastically reduces the possibilities to produce it in small batches outside an industrial environment. This fact hinders laboratory-scale investigations on CGI solidification. This work presents a solution to that issue by introducing an experimental technique to produce graphitic cast iron of the main three families. Samples of a base hypereutectic spheroidal graphite iron (SGI) were re-melted in a resistance furnace under Ar atmosphere. Varying the holding time at 1723 K (1450 °C), graphitic irons ranging from spheroidal to lamellar were produced. Characterization of the graphite morphology evolution, in terms of nodularity as a function of holding time, is presented. The nodularity decay for the SGI region suggests a linear correlation with the holding time. In the CGI region, nodularity deterioration shows a slower rate, concluding with the sudden appearance of lamellar graphite. The fading process of magnesium, showing agreement with previous researchers, is described by means of empirical relations as a function of holding time and nodularity. The results on nodularity fade and number of nodules per unit area fade suggest that both phenomena occur simultaneously during the fading process of magnesium.