Conference on Applications and Design in Mechanical Engineering, 25-26 October 2007, Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia

PAPER NO: 264/147

FUNDAMENTAL MICROSTRUCTURE MAPPING OF THE

HADFIELD MANGANESE STEEL DURING THE
TREATMENT IN (α + γ) REGION
*Reza Fadhila, **Haftirman, ***Azwar Manaf, *Che Husna Azhari

*The Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
**School of Mechatronics Engineering, University Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia.
***The Department of Physic, Faculty of Mathematic and Science, University of Indonesia

reza0128@yahoo.com.sg
haftirman@unimap.edu.my

Abstract. Mapping of microstructural of intragranular ferrite formed on changes due to the (α+γ) treatment regime
was studied in a Hadfield based composition. This paper presents the microstructural development of the austenitic
manganese steel-3401 due to different heating regimes followed by water quenching and air cooling process. The
material is heated to 1050ºC followed by a rapid cooling process which caused the solid solution of the carbides to be
precipitated in the grain of the pure austenite phase. The as-quenched material was then investigated for the development
of microstructure in an aging treatment by heating at various temperatures (450ºC, 500ºC and 550ºC) and at two holding
times (30min, and 60min), where the formation of ferrite is predicted to be occurs. The microstructural examination
showed that reprecipitation of austenite begins by precipitation of iron and manganese carbides at the grain boundaries,
then progressively followed by the appearance of a new constituent which later extended to the interior of its grain
boundaries. The transformation grows in the form of sheaves of parallel plates which nucleated at austenitic grain
surfaces. At a higher temperature, the ferrites gave way to acicular ferrite plates, growing in many different directions.
The rapid cooling usually caused the carbides that precipitated in grain boundaries dispersed back in the grains.

Keywords: Austenitic manganese steel, Microstructural mapping, Rapid cooling, Water quenching

1. INTRODUCTION on Fe-Mn-Cr used for austenitic corrosion-resistant

Hadfield’s austenitic manganese steel is still commonly
used for railroad components such as frogs and crossings
and also for rock-handling materials. Structural steel of
Hadfield which contained approximately 1.2% carbon
and 12 to 14% Mn based on a microstructure of
allotriomorphic ferrite and pearlite have a well-
established history of cost-effectiveness and reliability.
The unique properties of Hadfield’s manganese steel are
high strength and high toughness, resistance to wear and
heavy impact loading that make the steel very useful in
various applications, such as railroads, grinding mill
liners, crusher jaws and cones, impact hammer and even
bullet-proof helmets. It is usually used in the austenitic
condition (Frank, 1986). Recently, many attempts have
been made to improve the Hadfield base alloys properties
by varying their compositions and heat treatments. Some
of these were discussed by Rao and Kutumbarao (1989),
particularly for alloys based on the Fe-Mn-C system and
used for austenitic wear resistance steels, and those based
steels. A standard industrial practice to strengthen
Hadfield steels is by solution annealing which is to heat-
treat the material at 1000-1090ºC for up to 1 hour
followed by a water quench (Taylor, 1986; Sant and
Smith, 1985). This partial decomposition of austenite also
depends on the time and temperature of the aging
condition. The coarse inter-granular precipitation can
take place during various stages of the heat treatment and
lead to brittleness in cast-to-shape components (Rao and
Kutumbarao, 1989; Rodionov et al, 1989; Stepanova et
al, 1989). The cast-to-shape components are mainly used
in the rail transportation applications (Stepanova et al,
1989). Morphological mapping of phenomena,
particularly development of microstructure with heat-
treatment is a well-known tool in metallurgical
engineering.
In this study, the heat-treatment behavior of Hadfield’s
austenitic manganese steel- 3401 in water quench and
rapid cooling process is investigated using micro
structural mapping. The study focuses on the effect of
 Conference on Applications and Design in Mechanical Engineering, 25-26 October 2007, Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia

iso-thermal processes on the formation and
decomposition of new steel phases investigated at various
aging temperatures and holding times. By reheating this
austenite phase in the two region phase area, a partial
dispersion of austenite will occur. The time and
temperature of tempering will affect the dispersion area
in the austenite phase. We introduce this in order to set
the scene for the to allow for simultaneous reaction for
the temperature tempering of 450ºC to 550ºC at 50ºC
intervals that had never been investigated previously.
2. EXPERIMENTAL
The Hadfield’s manganese steel used was Krupp 3401
with the chemical composition as shown as in Table 1.
TABEL 1. Composition in Wt %
Composition Standard a Modified b
% C 1.0-1.2 1.059
% Mn 11-14 11.34
% Si - 0.3694
% Ni - 0.1345
% Cr - 0.1362
a.Data supplied by the manufacturers.
b.Actual analysis composition
The chemical composition was obtained using atomic
absorption spectrometry (Model:Leitz MPV2-L
Spectrophotometer). Test specimens of 10 x 20 x 25 mm
were prepared for metallographic inspection. Samples
were heat-treated at 1050ºC for 1 hour in a PID electric
furnace (Vectar VHT-3), then quenched in water to
homogenize the sample as at austenite phase. At
beginning, all samples were homogenized at temperature
of 1050ºC for 1 hour before being quenching in water. As
a second treatment, samples were tempered at different
temperatures. The tempering temperatures were set
between 450ºC to 550ºC at 50ºC interval. These
temperatures were selected based on the phase diagrams
of pure Fe-Mn. Table 2 shows the heating regimes for the
samples.
After aging at various holding times, the samples were
either quenched in water or air cooled. It was then
grounded and polished using an automatic polishing unit.
Grinding was performed using silicon carbide abrasive
TABEL 3. Etchant composition for Mn-steel
Type solution Composition
Solution A 100 ml alcohol 3 ml HNO3
Solution B 90 ml ethanol 10 ml HCl
Solution C 100 ml ethanol 2 ml NH4OH
paper of grit P 100, P 350, P 600, P 800, P 1000, P 1500
and P 2000 respectively. Finally, the samples were
polished using an alumina paste of 1µm to obtain a
mirror like surface, then etched using the etchant as
shown in Table 3.
The samples were etched in the order of solution A, B,
and C. The microstructure was characterised using an
optical image analyser microscope (Leica DMLM with
RGB Video TV camera JVC model TK1270E) at
magnification of 200 times.
3. RESULTS AND DISSCUSSION
The microstructure of Hadfield’s austenitic manganese
steel when heat-treated to 1050ºC followed by rapid
cooling process is shown in Figure 1. It shows austenite
grains of Hadfield’s steel with twins as similarly found
FIGURE 1. Austenite grains of Hadfield’s steel with
twins before solid solution (Tb = Twin boundary)
Twin boundary = Tb

TABEL 2. Heating regimes of the samples in water

quenching. ] Tb Tb
Homogenizing Holding Tempering Holding Tb
No. Temperature time Temperature time
(minutes) (minutes)
1. 1050ºC 60 450ºC 30, 60 Tb
2. 1050ºC 60 500ºC 30, 60
3. 1050ºC 60 550ºC 30, 60

FIGURE 2. Solid Solution austenite with twins

grain (Tb = Twin boundary)
Conference on Applications and Design in Mechanical Engineering, 25-26 October 2007, Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia
(II)
(III)
(IV)
( I)
FIGURE 3. Aging the sample at 450ºC at 30 minutes in
water quench.
Twin
Grain
Boundary
BBoundary
FIGURE 4. Aging the sample at 450ºC at 60 minutes in
water quench.
by previous researchers (Sant and Smith, 1985; Sant and
Smith, 1987; Mendez and Ghoreshy, 2004). Usually, a
fully austenitic structure, essentially free of carbides and
reasonably homogeneous with respect to carbon and
manganese, is obtained in the as-quenched condition.
This austenitic structure is marked by the significant
presence of annealing twins that exist both in the grains
as well as the grain boundaries. The demarcation between
the twins is decided by the orientation of the atomic plane
between two atomic lattices, one of which is the mirror
image of the other (Ashby, M.F., and Easterling, K.E.
1982; Sant and Smith, 1985; Sant and Smith, 1987) The
precipitates that are observed in Figure 1a are not found
in Figure 2. Probably the precipitates were dissolved in
the austenite grains in a solid solution process.
In Figure 3 shown the phase of austenite structure
consisting its grain boundary with grain size measuring
around 10µ . The structures still contain annealing twins
exist in austenite grains and its grain boundary.
Precipitates are solidified and stresssed the grain, thereby
promoting the growth of nuclei. Precipitates were observe
to be residing both in the grain and grain boundaries.
(II )
(I)
FIGURE 5. Aging the sample at 450ºC at 30 minutes in
air cooling.
(II)
(I)
FIGURE 6. Aging the sample at 450ºC at 60 minutes in
air cooling.
Precipitates that assume as ferrite (in size measure of 1µ)
can nucleate with a smaller activation energy on the
planar boundaries. The precipitates occupy only 10% of
the total grain volume.
Figure 4 shown that the microstructure presenting the
same fundamental features of the austenite grains and
also contain the annealing twin , but showing dissolve
precipitation in its grain. The effect of lengthening the
holding time made the precipitates migrate more to the
grain boundaries. It was observed that the precipitates
have become smaller in size but more numerous in the
grain boundary.
Figures 5 and 6 show the microstructure of Hadfield’s
austenitic manganese steel after heat-treated to 1050ºC
and subsequently reheated to 450ºC then followed by air
cooling. Figure 5 showed that the grain boundaries are
more enriched by the precipitates. This precipitates
maybe assume to be the formation of new epitaxial
ferrite. It is important to note that the ferrite grains in
intercritically (α+ γ ) annealed steel consist of the
epitaxial component. Because the epitaxial ferrite
reaction simply results in the growth of existing ferrite,
there are no boundaries between the ferrite present during
the anneal and the ferrite formed during the cooling,
which is observed here. A given ferrite grain will likely
have been present in the same crystallographic in the
grain boundaries, but not observed during annealing due
to its small size due to its state of growth. Thus, in the
micrograph, there exists only
Conference on Applications and Design in Mechanical Engineering, 25-26 October 2007, Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia
TWIN
TWIN
TWIN
(II)
( I)
FIGURE 7. Aging the sample at 500ºC at 30 minutes in
water quenching.
Cl t
TWIN
TWIN
(II)
(I)
FIGURE 8. Aging the sample at 500ºC at 60 minutes in
water quenching.
a single “ferrite” population in the grain boundaries. The
structure of austenite twin grain boundary can still be
discerned.
Figure 6 showed more precipitates enriching in the grain
boundary as holding time increased. The disappearance
of the precipitates from the grain seemly enriching in
grain boundaries and change from clusters size to the
form of sheaves of parallel plates ferrite which nucleated
at austenite grain boundary surfaces. This was clearly
seen that final structure seems a bainitical, where bainite
grows in the form of clusters of thin lenticular plates or
laths which is known as sub unit in an invariant plane
(have been previously reported by the author et.al)
Figure 7, 8, 9 and 10 show the microstructure of
Hadfield’s austenitic manganese steel after heat-treated to
1050ºC and subsequently reheated to 500ºC then either
followed by quenching in water or air cooled.
Figure 7 shown the phase of austenite structure consisting
its grain boundary with grain size measuring around 10µ .
It contain annealing twins exist in grains and grain
boundary. Precipitates were observed to be residing in
grain boundaries and minority in the grain. The 10µ
grain size is enriching in its grain boundaries by the
numerous of 2-3 µ precipitated seem in this figures.
Comparing to Fig. 3 and 4, Figure 7 showing that they
were more precipitates remains in grain boundaries.
Process of precipitates remaining seemly followed the
diffusion process. Firstly numerous of precipitates remain
in its grain then later migrated to the grain boundary.
Second, the diffusion will take place due to a differing
concentration (must be a concentration gradient to effect
diffusion) which produces the driving forced required for
Ferrite
needle
Ferrite
needle
(II)
(I)
FIGURE 9. Aging the sample at 500ºC at 30 minutes in
air cooling.
(II)
(I)
FIGURE 10. Aging the sample at 500ºC at 60 minutes
in air cooling.
the process. (Ashby and Easterling, 1982 ; have been
previously reported by the author et.al)
Figure 8 shown that the microstructure present the same
fundamental features of the austenite grains and also
contain the annealing twin , but showing the more
dissolve precipitation in its grain. Precipitates are solidify
and restrain again in grain. It was observe to be residing
both in the grain and grain boundaries. The effect of
lengthening the holding time made the precipitates
migrate more to the grain boundaries. It was observed
that the clusters have become bigger in size and more
numerous in the grain boundary than in figure 3a.
Figure 9 shown microstructure that the disappearance of
the precipitates from the grain seemly enriching in grain
boundaries and change from clusters size to the form of
sheaves of parallel plates ferrite which nucleated at
austenite grain boundary surfaces.
How ever few precipitates are still nucleated either at the
grain or grain boundary. The parallel plates of ferrite like
needle form not only nucleated at austenite grain
boundary surfaces but also can nucleated in the grain.
This might be caused by the precipitates cluster which
have not sufficient time to migrate to grain boundary has
change clusters size to the form of sheaves of parallel
plates ferrite
Figure 10 shown that microstructure where all
precipitates that exists in the grain boundary is fully
changed to the form of sheaves of parallel plate’s ferrite
which nucleated at the grain boundary. In this features
there are more numerous of ferrite needle than Fig. 9.
First the ferrite needle seem nucleated in grain or even in
Conference on Applications and Design in Mechanical Engineering, 25-26 October 2007, Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia
(II)
Ferrite grows in grain
(idiomorp ferrite)
(I)
FIGURE 11. Aging the sample at 550ºC at 30 minutes
in water quenching.
FIGURE 12. Aging the sample at 550ºC at 30 minutes
in water quenching.
grain boundary. Second, from every part of the needle by
irregular movement other needle is remain. Sub needle of
ferrite remain more and more as long as the time of aging
is lengthen. Last in every upper end form as a sheaves
plates. This was clearly seen that final structure seems
forming the acicular ferrite formation.
Figure 11, 12, 13, and 14 show aging the sample at
550ºC. The microstructure of Hadfield’s austenitic
manganese steel after heat-treated to 1050ºC and
subsequent reheat in 550ºC followed by water quenching
are shown in Figures 4 bellows. It shows that by
increasing the aging temperature, more precipitates which
was predicted as new ferrite perform previously was
formed at the grain boundaries especially in Fig. 11, 12,
13, 1and 14.
In Fig. 11 and 12shown the microstructure of Hadfield’s
austenitic manganese steel after heat-treated to 1050ºC
followed by aging to 550ºC and quenching in water, the
phase of austenite structure consisting its grain boundary
enriching with granule precipitate to formed ferrite
structure. Rapid cooling caused some of elements that
precipitated in grain boundaries which could be carbide
had dispersed back into the grain (Sant and Smith, 1985;
Sant and Smith, 1987; Middleham, 1964) seem clearly in
Fig. 12. Comparing Fig. 11 and 12, Fig. 12 representing
that there were super saturated enriching precipitates in
grain boundary therefore rapid cooling make the
precipitates dispersed again to the grain.
How ever in features 12, a few precipitates are still
nucleated either at the grain or grain boundary.
(II)
(I) (III)
FIGURE 13. Aging the sample at 550ºC at 30 minutes
in water quenching.
( II )
(I)
FIGURE 14. Aging the sample at 550ºC at 30 minutes in
water quenching.
The cluster of ferrite precipitates not only nucleated at
austenite grain boundary surfaces but also can nucleate in
the grain. This might be caused by the precipitates
clusters which have not sufficient time to migrate to grain
boundary. The ferrite cluster that nucleated in the grain
can be as idiomorph ferrite, and other which is nucleated
granuled in grain boundary as allotromophic ferrite.(
Honeycomb, R.W.K, and Bhadeshia, H. K.D.H.
1982;Sant and Smith, 1985; Sant and Smith, 1987)
Nucleation in the grain or even in the boundary is
identified as nucleation of ferrite because diffusion of
ferrite and manganese as main adding element in
austenite is higher than carbon.
Figure 13 shows the microstructure of Hadfield’s
austenitic manganese steel after heat-treated to 1050ºC
followed by aging to 550ºC cooling in air, the phase of
austenite structure consisting its grain boundary enriching
with granule precipitate to formed ferrite structure.
The parallel plates of ferrite like needle form not only
nucleated at austenite grain boundary surfaces but also
nucleated in the grain. This might be caused by the
precipitates cluster which have not sufficient time to
migrate to grain boundary has change clusters size to the
form of sheaves of parallel plates ferrite. Comparing to
Fig. 9, if the temperature is increased, it seem that the
numerous of accicular ferrite that present both in grain or
grain boundaries is lesser
Figure 14 shows the microstructure of Hadfield’s
austenitic manganese steel after heat-treated to 1050ºC
followed by aging to 550ºC held 60 minutes and cooling
Conference on Applications and Design in Mechanical Engineering, 25-26 October 2007, Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia
in the air, the phase of austenite structure consisting its
grain boundary enriching with granule precipitate to
formed ferrite structure.
Figure 14, precipitates as ferrite (indicated by its irregular
form) are nucleated either at the grain boundary, and
accicular ferrite occupy in the grain . The cluster of
ferrite precipitates not only nucleated at austenite grain
boundary surfaces but also can nucleated in the grain.
This might be caused by the ferrite cluster which have not
sufficient time to migrate to grain boundary. The ferrite
cluster that nucleated in the grain can be assumed as
idiomorph ferrite, and other which is nucleated granuled
in grain boundary identified as allotromophic ferrite.
Nucleation in the grain or even in the boundary is
identified as nucleation of ferrite because diffusion of
ferrite and manganese as main adding element in
austenite is higher than carbon. The growth of idiomorph
ferrite is significant as the decreasing of accicular ferrite
in the grain.
4. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents the microstructural development of
the austenitic manganese steel-3401 due to different
heating regimes followed by rapid cooling process. The
results obtained can be summarized as follows:
(1) The heat-treated material of 1050ºC followed by
rapid cooling process caused the solid solution
of the carbides to be precipitated in the grain of
the pure austenite phase. By Aging this austenite
phase, a partial dispersion of austenite will
occur. The aging time and temperature affect
the dispersion area in the austenite phase.
(2) The microstructure examination of the samples
showed that the formation of austenite begins by
precipitation of iron and manganese carbides at
the grain boundaries, then progressively
followed by the appearance of a new constituent
which later extend into its grain. The aging is
started by reaction of intercritical temperature
where the transformation is : γ → α + γ ,
therefore the kinetics of this process ferrite (α )
forming will begins by diffusion at the grain
boundaries. Seemly that by a diffusional
mechanism grow in this case ferrite can be
classified into two main forms: allotriomorphic
ferrite and idiomorphic ferrite.
(3) An allotriomorphic ferrite nucleates at prior
austenite grain boundaries tends to grow along
the γ austenite boundaries at a rate faster than in
the direction normal to the boundary plane, so
that its shape is strongly influenced by the
presence of the boundary and hence does not
necessarily reflect its internal symmetry.
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