Acicular ferrite is a microstructure of ferrite that is characterised by needle shaped crystallites or grains when viewed in two dimensions. The grains, actually three dimensional in shape, have a thin lenticular shape. This microstructure is advantageous over other microstructures because of its chaotic ordering, which increases toughness.[1]
Acicular ferrite is formed in the interior of the original austenitic grains by direct nucleation from the inclusions, resulting in randomly oriented short ferrite needles with a 'basket weave' appearance. This interlocking nature, together with its fine grain size (0.5 to 5 um with aspect ratio from 3:1 to 10:1), provides maximum resistance to crack propagation by cleavage. Acicular ferrite is also characterised by high angle boundaries between the ferrite grains. This further reduces the chance of cleavage, because these boundaries impede crack propagation. It is reported that nucleation of various ferrite morphologies is aided by nonmetallic inclusion; in particular oxygen-rich inclusions of a certain type and size are associated with the intragranular formation of acicular ferrite. Acicular ferrite is a fine Widmanstätten constituent, which is nucleated by an optimum intragranular dispersion of oxide/sulfide/silicate particles.
Composition control of weld metal is often performed to maximise the volume fraction of acicular ferrite due to the toughness it imparts. Higher alloy contents generally delay transformation, during continuous cooling transformation will then take place at lower temperatures and lead to higher hardness.
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