A phase-field model for incoherent martensitic transformations including plastic accommodation processes in the austenite

If alloys undergo an incoherent martensitic transformation, then plastic accommodation and relaxation accompany the transformation. To capture these mechanisms we develop an improved 3D microelastic-plastic phase-field model. It is based on the classical concepts of phase-field modeling of microelastic problems (Chen, L.Q., Wang Y., Khachaturyan, A.G., 1992. Philos. Mag. Lett. 65, 15-23). In addition to these it takes into account the incoherent formation of accommodation dislocations in the austenitic matrix, as well as their inheritance into the martensitic plates based on the crystallography of the martensitic transformation. We apply this new phase-field approach to the butterfly-type martensitic transformation in a Fe-30 wt%Ni alloy in direct comparison to recent experimental data (Sato, H., Zaefferer, S., 2009. Acta Mater. 57, 1931-1937). It is shown that the therein proposed mechanisms of plastic accommodation during the transformation can indeed explain the experimentally observed morphology of the martensitic plates as well as the orientation between martensitic plates and the austenitic matrix. The developed phase-field model constitutes a general simulations approach for different kinds of phase transformation phenomena that inherently include dislocation based accommodation processes. The approach does not only predict the final equilibrium topology, misfit, size, crystallography, and aspect ratio of martensite-austenite ensembles resulting from a transformation, but it also resolves the associated dislocation dynamics and the distribution, and the size of the crystals itself. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.