Kinetics of the eutectoid colony growth in a solid solution for simple alloy models

A simple model, which reflects the main features of the phase equilibria between austenite, ferrite, and cementite, is proposed to study the growth kinetics of pearlite-type eutectoid colonies. The previously developed microscopic theory of diffusional phase transformations in alloys developed earlier is used to simulate steady-state colony growth for several versions of this model. The existing phenomenological approaches are found to describe the main features of the colony growth kinetics qualitatively correctly; however, these approaches are insufficient to draw quantitative conclusions. The changes in the colony front shape as temperature T approaches eutectic point T _e and the structure of the interphase boundaries at various T are studied. At T near T _e , the initial phase (austenite) is found to wet the boundaries between the forming phases (ferrite, cementite), which results in a sharp increase in the interphase boundary thickness and a decrease in the junction angle between the phases at the colony front. The differences in the diffusion mobilities of interstitial (carbon) atoms in different phases are shown to be important to adequately describe the colony growth kinetics.