A detailed review of the additivity principle with respect to the incubation of the austenite decomposition was summarized in Part I of this two-part series and led to the concept of an "ideal" time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram. This curve is characteristic of the chemistry and austenite grain size in the steel and allows nonisothermal behavior to be described assuming additivity holds. The derivation of mathematical relationships between the ideal and experimental cooling data was presented in the first article. In this second article, an ideal curve for the austenite-to-pearlite transformation was derived from cooling data. The applicability of the ideal TTT curve for predicting the start of transformation under continuous cooling conditions was assessed for a range of cooling rates. Experiments were conducted under both isothermal and varying temperature conditions, including an industrial cooling schedule, using a Gleeble Thermal Simulator. Reasonable agreement was found between the predictions and the observed transformation start temperatures; predictions were consistent and compared favorably against other methods which have been frequently used to estimate the transformation start temperature for nonisothermal conditions.
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