**4. Conclusions**

Ferrite hardening alteration was studied in a medium silicon low alloy commercial grade of 35CHGSA steel under ferrite-martensite/ferrite-pearlite microstructures in relation to possibility of carbon, Si, Cr and Mn partitioning between ferrite and prior austenite microphases over a wide range of ferrite volume fractions. The conclusions are as followings:


fraction to 15%, but with remaining fraction comprising of pearlite in SQ30 heattreated samples.


**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.S.G.B., S.A.S. and M.C.S.; methodology, S.S.G.B., S.A.S. and M.C.S.; software, A.K.; validation, A.K.; formal analysis, A.K. and S.S.G.B.; investigation, A.K.; resources, A.K., S.S.G.B., S.A.S. and M.C.S.; data curation, A.K. and S.S.G.B.; writing—original draft preparation, A.K. and S.S.G.B.; writing—review and editing, A.K., S.S.G.B. and M.C.S.; visualization, A.K. and M.C.S.; supervision, A.K.; project administration, S.S.G.B.; funding acquisition, S.S.G.B. and M.C.S.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** One of the authors, M.C. Somani, would like to express his gratitude to the Academy of Finland for funding this research under the auspices of the Genome of Steel (Profi3) through project #311934.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
