This article introduces basic physical metallurgy concepts that may be useful for understanding and interpreting variations in metallographic features and how processing affects microstructure. It presents some basic concepts in structure-property relationships. The article describes the use of equilibrium binary phase diagrams as a tool in the interpretation of microstructures. It reviews an account of the two types of solid-state phase transformations: isothermal and athermal. The article discusses isothermal transformation and continuous cooling transformation diagrams which are useful in determining the conditions for proper heat treatment (solid-state transformation) of metals and alloys. The influence of the mechanisms of phase nucleation and growth on the morphology, size, and distribution of grains and second phases is also described.

Similar to the eutectic group of invariant transformations is a group of peritectic reactions, in which a liquid and solid phase decomposes into a solid phase on cooling through the peritectic isotherm. This article describes the equilibrium freezing and nonequilibrium freezing of peritectic alloys. It informs that peritectic reactions or transformations are very common in the solidification of metals. The article discusses the formation of peritectic structures that can occur by three mechanisms: peritectic reaction, peritectic transformation, and direct precipitation of beta from the melt. It provides a discussion on the peritectic structures in iron-base alloys and concludes with information on multicomponent systems.

This article presents an outline of the physical metallurgical principles that are associated with heat treating of steels. It describes the iron-carbon phase diagram and various types of transformation diagrams, including isothermal transformation diagrams, continuous heating transformation diagrams, and continuous cooling transformation diagrams. The primary design criteria for heat treating of steels this article covers are the minimization of distortion and undesirable residual stresses. The article presents the theoretical and empirical guidelines to understand sources of common heat-treating defects and how they can be controlled. It also presents an example to demonstrate how thermal and transformation-induced strains cause dimensional changes and residual stresses.

This article provides a discussion on the transformations of various categories of bainite in ferrous systems. These include upper bainite, lower bainite, inverse bainite, granular bainite, and columnar bainite. The article also provides information on the bainite transformations in nonferrous systems.

This article introduces the mechanism of diffusion and the common types of heat treatments such as annealing and precipitation hardening, which are applicable to most ferrous and nonferrous systems. Three distinct processes occur during annealing: recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth. The article also describes the various types of solid-state transformations such as isothermal transformation and athermal transformation, resulting from the heat treatment of nonferrous alloys. It provides information on the homogenization of chemical composition within a cast structure.

The heat treatment of steel is based on the physical metallurgical principles that relate to its processing, properties, and structure. The microstructures that result from the heat treatment of steel are composed of one or more phases in which the atoms of iron, carbon, and other elements in steel are associated. This article describes the phases of heat treated steel, and provides information on effect of temperature change and the size of carbon atoms relative to that of iron atoms during the heat treatment.

Copper steels are precipitation-strengthened steels that are designed to have a unique combination of physical and mechanical properties. This article provides an overview of copper precipitate-strengthened steels and their applications, and discusses appropriate ASTM International standards. It describes the common phases and alloying elements present in copper precipitate-strengthened steels, and reviews the influences of alloying elements on processing, phase diagrams, microstructures, and mechanical properties. The article also discusses the thermomechanical process, solutionizing heat treatment, and isothermal aging in detail. It concludes with a review of the interrelationships between heat treatments, microstructures, and mechanical properties.

Solid-state transformations from invariant reactions are of three types: eutectoid, peritectoid, and monotectoid transformations. This article focuses on structures from eutectoid transformations with an emphasis on the classic iron-carbon system of steel. It illustrates the morphology of a pearlite nodule and the effect of various substitutional alloy elements on the eutectoid transformation temperature and effective carbon content, respectively. Peritectic and peritectoid phase equilibria are very common in several binary systems. The article reviews structures from peritectoid reactions and details the formation of peritectic structures that can occur by at least three mechanisms: peritectic reaction, peritectic transformation, and direct precipitation of beta from the melt.

This article discusses the stable and metastable three-phase fields in the binary Fe-C phase diagram. It schematically illustrates that austenite decomposition requires accounting for nucleation and growth of ferrite and then nucleation and growth of pearlite in the remaining untransformed volume. The article describes the austenite decomposition to ferrite and pearlite in spheroidal graphite irons and lamellar graphite irons. It provides a discussion on modeling austenite decomposition to ferrite and pearlite.

The transformation of austenite of cast irons represents a more complex and less studied subject. This article discusses the general features of the decomposition of austenite into bainite. It describes the heat treatment cycles of austempered cast iron microstructure. The article reviews several factors, such as presence of graphite and austenite grain size, which affect the transformation rate of austenite during austempering of free-graphite cast irons.

Dual-phase steels are a new class of high-strength low alloy (HSLA) steels characterized by a microstructure consisting of about 20% hard martensite particles dispersed in a soft ductile ferrite matrix. In addition to high tensile strength, in the range of 550 MPa (80 ksi), dual-phase steels exhibit continuous yielding behavior, a low 0.2% offset yield strength, and a higher total elongation than other HSLA steels of similar strength. The article discusses some of the more pertinent aspects of dual-phase steels, such as heat treatment, microstructure, mechanical properties, chemical composition, and manufacturability. In general, these steels have a carbon content of less than 0.1%, which ensures that they can be spot welded. However, newer high-carbon dual-phase steels in development are generating interest due to their unique combination of total elongation and tensile strength.

Austenitization refers to heating into the austenite phase field, during which the austenite structure is formed. This article highlights the purpose of austenitization, and reviews the mechanism and importance of thermodynamics and kinetics of austenite structure using an iron-carbon binary phase diagram. It also describes the effects of austenite grain size, and provides useful information on controlling the austenite grain size using the thermomechanical process.

Steels may be annealed to facilitate cold working or machining, to improve mechanical or electrical properties, or to promote dimensional stability. This article, using iron-carbon phase diagram, describes the types of annealing processes, namely, subcritical annealing, intercritical annealing, supercritical or full annealing, and process annealing. Spheroidizing is performed for improving the cold formability of steels. The article provides guidelines for annealing and tabulates the critical temperature values for selected carbon and low-alloy steels and recommended temperatures and time cycles for annealing of alloy steels and carbon steel forgings. Different combinations of annealed microstructure and hardness are significant in terms of machinability. Furnaces for annealing are of two basic types, batch furnaces and continuous furnaces. The article concludes with a description of the annealing processes for steel sheets and strips, forgings, bars, rods, wires, and plates.