Comparison of the measurements of austenite volume fraction by various methods for Mn-Si-C steel

Various methods were employed to measure the austenite volume fraction in a 1.5Mn-1.5Si-0.2C steel. It has been confirmed that the volume fractions determined by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy/electron back scatter diffraction, X-ray diffraction and neutron diffraction exhibit a general trend to become larger in this order, although the values obtained by X-ray and neutron diffraction are similar in the present steel because austenite is relatively stable. The austenite volume fractions determined by diffraction methods have been found to be affected by the measuring specimen direction, i.e., texture, even by applying the conventional correcting procedure. To avoid this influence, it is recommended to measure both of volume fraction and texture simultaneously using neutron diffraction. Although synchrotron X-ray shows higher angle resolution, its small incident beam size brings poor statistic reliability. The influence of texture cannot be avoided for transmission Bragg edge measurement, either, which must be overcome to realize 2D or 3D volume fraction mapping.