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PUBLICATIONS

Clementite's Elastic Constants

Published

Author(s)

Sudook A. Kim, H M. Ledbetter

Abstract

By extrapolation, we estimated cementite's elastic constants. Altogether, we studied seven Fe-C binary alloys varying from 0 to 17.3 atomic percent carbon. Thus, we measured hypoeutectoid, near eutectoid, and hypereutectoid alloys. For cementite, we report a complete set of quasiisotropic (polycrystal) elastic constants. If texture occurred, we removed its effect by using a Voigt-Reuss-Hill method. Surprisingly, for the dilatational modes, the cementite's elastic constants differ little from those of pure b.c.c. iron and are about ten percent higher for a shear mode such as the Young modulus. This indicates a tendency toward Fe-C covalent bonding. The decrease in Poisson ratio supports covalent bonding, but the small decrease indicates smaller covalent-bonding effects than expected by Pauling . Contrary to all previous reports, we find Fe3C stiffer than pure α-iron.
Citation
Journal of Materials Science
Pub Type
Journals

Keywords

carbon, carbon steel, cementite, elastic constants, iron, iron-carbon alloy, pearlite, steel

Citation

Kim, S. and Ledbetter, H. (2008), Clementite's Elastic Constants, Journal of Materials Science (Accessed October 22, 2025)

Issues

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Created October 16, 2008
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