From: bobcook39...@hotmail.com ➢ In the 1960’s there was reported to be a rapid heating of large steel block Sandia was trying to magnetize. The block turned white hot in an instant, but did not melt. The research went dark. I can not find a reference to that work to this day…It may have been a resonant coupling of magnetic spin energy with the lattice. (Also it may have been rapid reaction of hydrogen in the lattice with iron.) Either way there should be a report.
This sounds like a form of “recalescence” which is a type of strongly energetic phase-change. A lack of a report could be simply to avoid liability should there have been an injury. That was typical even at the big labs fifty years ago. Significant heat transfer can occur inadvertently during the heating/cooling cycle of iron (iron in particular and other metals as well). Many horrible accidents in steel mills have been attributed to this type of phase change since it is not fully understood. The dynamics of recalescence result in a surprisingly robust and sudden temperature surge during cooling - and even a “remelt” without additional heat - which is the extreme case since the molten steel can explode. It has been called a type of “cyrstalization heat” which can be tied to graphite content, but the thermodynamics of it are not completely understood. I doubt if there a conspiracy of silence at Sandia at least not in regard to this effect, although apparently it depends on the exact amount of carbon and the type of carbon in the iron which is seldom known with enough precision to avoid it. For instance, it could be possible for 2.1% graphitic iron to strongly reheat but 2.2% to behave normally.
