Analysis of Misorientation Relationships Between Austenite Parents and Twins

The forward transformation from face-centered cubic austenite to body-centered cubic/tetragonal martensite in ferrous alloys can significantly influence the microstructure and mechanical properties of the material. Inferring possible high-temperature crystal orientations from observations of ambient temperature transformation microstructures is hindered by parent austenite–twin interactions and scatter in the orientation relationship. This creates a major limitation for studying variant selection phenomena and characterizing microstructural response to high-temperature thermomechanical processing conditions. In this work, composition tables are developed that detail the product variant boundary misorientation relationships for intra-parent, parent–twin, and twin–twin boundary intersections for the Kurdjumov–Sachs (KS), Nishiyama–Wassermann (NW), and an experimentally determined irrational orientation relationship. The frequently referenced KS and NW orientation relationships produce significantly different results from experimental observations. Furthermore, the introduction of a twin into the parent austenite introduces a substantially larger number of misorientation relationships when the orientation relationship is irrational. The effects of crystal symmetry on misorientation results are determined by considering both body-centered cubic and body-centered tetragonal martensite structures. Lastly, it is observed that some shared variants are found between twins and parents when assuming cubic symmetry but not tetragonal symmetry. The results and relationships may be useful towards accurate and consistent reconstructions of the parent austenite microstructure from observations of martensite.