Abstract
This study investigates the influence of an applied magnetic field on the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of hypoeutectoid steels subjected to heat treatment. Tensile tests and microstructural analysis were performed on samples processed under varying magnetic field strengths (0 T, 5 T, and 9 T) and different austenitization incubation times. The results indicate that the application of a magnetic field alters the fraction of proeutectoid ferrite phase without changing the cooling rates and heat treatment process. Additionally, pearlite microstructural features such as lamellar spacing and misorientation angles exhibit variations under different field strengths. While the pearlite nodule diameter remains largely unaffected, an increase in percentage elongation and strength is observed in the 5 T treated sample, attributed to changes in microstructural features with the magnetic field. Additionally, the percentage elongation is reduced in the samples heat treated with reduced austenitization incubation times. The study further demonstrates that low-angle misorientations increased in the samples taken parallel to the magnetic field direction, influencing the mechanical response. These findings suggest that applying a magnetic field during heat treatment provides an additional driving force for phase transformations, offering a manufacturing process for tailoring microstructures and optimizing mechanical properties. Moreover, integrating magnetic fields in heat treatment processes has potential benefits in energy efficiency.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 149493 |
| Journal | Materials Science and Engineering: A |
| Volume | 950 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2026 |
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy ( EERE ) under the Advanced Manufacturing Office award number DE-EE0009131. The research work also utilized the shared facilities at the Virginia Tech Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory (NCFL) part of the National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), supported by NSF (ECCS 1542100 and ECCS 2025151). The authors also sincerely thank Dr. Stephen McCartney, Jarret Wright, and Hongyu Wang for their valuable technical assistance with electron microscopy, which was provided by Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory at Virginia Tech. R.K.B. thank Prof. Jae Hwang Lee for sharing the MATLAB code for evaluating the pearlite lamellar microstructural features. Finally, R.K.B. would like to immensely thank Dr. Shima Shahab for her support during this research process. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- High magnetic field
- Hypoeutectoid steels
- Mechanical properties
- Microstructures