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Dislocation-density-related equations were proved to be promising tools to correlate tensile plastic behaviour and microstructure in ductile irons (DIs), revealing distinct relationships between equation parameters and microstructure features in austempered ductile irons (ADI) and isothermed ductile irons (IDI). These equations resulted to be successful also in the characterization of the austempering process through the plastic behaviour analysis of tensile tests of an ADI 1050 that was quenched at different times during austempering. The equation parameters could indeed be correlated to the time window for the best ausferrite, and could predict the precipitation of the deleterious epsilon' carbides for long austempering times. In the present work the results of the tensile plastic behaviour analysis of different DIs through dislocation-density-related equations are reported. The aim of the analysis was to test the capability of these equations to assess the microstructure quality of DIs and support their industrial production.

The effect of austempering parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 27MnCrB5-2 steel has been investigated by means of: dilatometric, microstructural and fractographic analyses; tensile and Charpy V-notch (CVN) impact tests at room temperature and a low temperature.Microstructural analyses showed that upper bainite developed at a higher austempering temperature, while a mixed bainitic-martensitic microstructure formed at lower temperatures, with a different amount of bainite and martensite and a different size of bainite sheaf depending on the temperature. Tensile tests highlighted superior yield and tensile strengths (≈30%) for the mixed microstructure, with respect to both fully bainitic and Q&T microstructures, with only a low reduction in elongation to failure (≈10%). Impact tests confirmed that mixed microstructures have higher impact properties, at both room temperature and a low temperature.