Materials for high-temperature application, e.g. in gas-turbine compressor discs or steam turbine rotors, are often susceptible to microstructural instabilities during long-term service. Such instabilities reduce the service life due to a deterioration of the mechanical properties. Therefore, it is most important to identify such instabilities, which often take place in sub-micrometer scale. A class of materials widely used in power generating industries are the martensitic 9-12% Cr steels. In the present work STEM-EDX mappings were used to reveal the distribution of alloying elements in 9-12% Cr steels with a martensitic-austenitic microstructure developed recently.
The chemical composition of the material investigated was Fe-10.1Cr-6.2Co-5.2Mn-2.1Ni-1.2Mo-0.47V-0.1 IN (weight-percent). The material was subjected to a two step heat-treatment of normalizing at 1175°C for 1.5h with subsequent quenching and controlled tempering at 600°C for 20h. Due to the high amount of manganese and nickel a duplex microstructure of 30-40vol.% of austenite in a matrix of tempered martensite is formed during tempering.