The DANTE Austenite Decomposition Model predicts phase transformations during cooling and quenching by putting carbon and chemical compositions such as alloy composition and grain size into analytical equations.
It models the transformation of austenite into ferrite, pearlite, upper bainite, lower bainite, and martensite, with upper and lower bainite treated as separate phases.
Unlike traditional approaches that rely on TTT diagrams, DANTE uses analytical equations for improved robustness while TTT diagrams can still be generated from the material database.
The model accounts for:
Material models are affected by latent heat absorption and release from the austenitizing and austenite decomposition process which would directly influence how the materials would behave.
This is particularly important for fast heating processes such as induction hardening and laser hardening, where latent heat significantly affects austenitizing depth and thermal gradients.
For larger components undergoing martensitic transformation, latent heat significantly influences internal temperature distribution, impacting hardness and residual stress predictions.
In alloys with high martensite start temperature (Ms), martensite can partially temper during cooling. The Auto-Tempering Model simulates this behavior directly within the quenching process.
Because tempered martensite hardness depends on cooling rate and thermal history, modeling auto-tempering is essential for accurate hardness prediction in high-performance steels.
During cooling, ferrite formation and an increase in carbon in austenite causes an increase hardenability and lowers the martensite start temperature (Ms).
The Carbon Partitioning Model improves prediction accuracy for residual stress, distortion, and hardness.
Depending on the heat treatment process history, actual carbon content in each phase can be different.
Different carbides and carbide sizes in the initial material influence how rapidly carbon dissolves into austenite during heating. The Initial Carbide Decomposition Model predicts the amount of carbon in solution.
This material model is critical for high-carbon steels such as AISI 52100, as well as high heating-rate processes including induction and laser hardening.
Learn heat treatment. Explore simulation.
Start with the DANTE Student’s Guide to Heat Treating, a quick reference covering the fundamentals of heat treatment, steel microstructures, and common processes. Ready to go further? Get hands-on experience with DANTE through our student/trial license and explore real-world heat treatment simulations.
Explore our peer-reviewed studies and technical papers developed over the past 50 years in the industry by our engineers.
Have a project or a question about heat treating? Connect with our engineers for to discuss how DANTE can fit into your workflow.
See how the DANTE suite enables engineers to simulate quenching, distortion, hardness, stress, and metallurgical phases
Explore our case studies showing how DANTE FEA predicts distortion, hardness, phase changes, and residual stress.