Thermokinetic modelling of high-temperature evolution of pfrimary Nb(C,N) in austenite applied to recrystallization of 316Nb austenitic Stainless Steel

The size evolution of niobium carbonitrides Nb(C,N) and the evolution of the composition of an austenitic matrix in 316Nb stainless steel were simulated using DICTRA software. For the first time, the complete nine-element composition of steel was taken into account during isothermal and even anisothermal heat treatments. A reduced model was then proposed to optimize the calculation time for complex heat treatments. The change in the mean Nb content in austenite due to Nb(C,N) evolution during different heat treatments was studied. It qualitatively agrees with experimental data as obtained by electron probe microanalysis. Furthermore, the model was successfully applied to explain the effect of heat treatments on the recrystallization behavior of 316Nb steel during hot torsion tests. Moreover, the effect of the thermodynamic database and the number of alloying elements chosen was discussed. We showed that taking into account seven or even nine elements greatly improves the accuracy compared to usual simplified compositions. The proposed method can be useful in designing heat treatments promoting or conversely hindering recrystallization for a wide variety of Nb-bearing steels.