The heat affected zone (HAZ) during welding experiences a very steep temperature gradient which results in significant microstructure gradients. Thus, model approaches on the length scale of the microstructure, i.e. the so-called mesoscale, are useful to accurately simulate microstructure evolution in the HAZ. In this study, a phase field model (PFM) is employed to simulate austenite grain growth and austenite decomposition in the HAZ of an X80 linepipe steel microalloyed with Nb and Ti. The interfacial mobilities and nucleation conditions are obtained by benchmarking the PFM with experimental data from austenite grain growth and continuous cooling transformation tests. An effective grain boundary mobility is introduced for austenite grain growth to implicitly account for dissolution of NbC. Subsequently, austenite decomposition into polygonal ferrite and bainite is considered. For this purpose the PFM is coupled with a carbon diffusion model. Ferrite nuclei are introduced at austenite grain boundaries and suitable interfacial mobilities are selected to reproduce experimental ferrite formation kinetics. Bainite nucleation occurs for a sufficiently high undercooling at available interface sites (i.e. austenite grain boundaries and/or austenite-ferrite interfaces). For simplicity, the formation of carbide-free bainite is considered and a suitable anisotropy approach is proposed for the austenite-bainite interface mobility. The model is then used to predict austenite grain growth and phase transformation in the HAZ.
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