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Ferritic stainless steels are the most commonly used materials for solid oxide fuel cell interconnect application. Although these alloys may meet the criteria for interconnect application for short periods of service, their application is limited for long-term use (i.e., 40,000 h) due to poor oxidation behaviour that results in a rapid increase in contact resistance. In addition, volatile Cr species migrating from the chromia scale can poison the cathode resulting in a considerable drop in performance of the cell. Coatings and surface modifications have been developed in order to mitigate the abovementioned problems. In this study, composite electrodeposition of reactive element containing particles in a metal matrix was considered as a solution to the interconnect problems. Nickel and Co were used as the metal matrix and LaCrO3 particles as the reactive element containing particles. The role of the particles was to improve the oxidation resistance and oxide scale adhesion, while the role of Ni or Co was to provide a matrix for embedding of the particles. Also, oxidation of the Ni or Co matrix led to the formation of conductive oxides. Moreover, as another part of this study, the effect of substrate composition on performance of steel interconnects was investigated. Numerous experimental techniques were used to study and characterise the oxidation behaviour of the composite coatings, as well as the metal-oxide scale interface properties. Scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), as well as surface analysis techniques including Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), were used for the purpose of characterization. The substrate used for coating was AISI-SAE 430 stainless steel that is considered as a typical, formerly used interconnect material. Also, for the purpose of the metal-oxide scale interfacial study, ZMG232 stainless steel that is a specially designed interconnect alloy was used. It is shown that the composite coatings greatly reduce the contact resistance and effectively inhibit Cr outward migration. In addition, it was determined that the presence of impurities in the steel, especially Si, and the absence of reactive elements drastically contribute to interconnect degradation. / Materials Science and Engineering

The last seven hot rolling passes of the ferritic stainless steels (FSS) AISI 430 and AISI 433 (the latter an Al-added variant of 430) were simulated on Gleeble-1500D® and Gleeble-3800TM® thermo-mechanical simulators to investigate the effect of temperature, strain rate and inter-pass time on the development of texture in these steel grades and its subsequent influence on ridging. The compression tests were carried out over a wide range of strain rates (0.1 s-1 to 5 s-1, 25 s-1 and 50 s-1) and temperatures (1100 to 820 oC) with different inter-pass times (2 s, 10 s, 20 s and 30 s). The transition temperature from dynamic recrystallization (which may introduce a texture change) to dynamic recovery (in which no texture changes are expected) was determined by examining the relationship between the mean flow stress and the deformation temperature in multi-pass tests. Both macrotexture (XRD) and microtexture (EBSD) analyses were employed to characterise and study the texture present in these steels. It was found that the texture in the central layer of the compressed sample is a strong recrystallization-type. The through-thickness textural and microstructural banding was found to be responsible for ridging in these grades of stainless steels. Dynamic recrystallization which promotes the formation of the desired ã-fibre texture leading to high ductility, formability and eventually reduction or elimination of ridging, was found to occur in both AISI 430 and AISI 433 at high temperatures, low strain rates and longer inter-pass times with multi-pass testing. Generally AISI 433 has a stronger gamma texture developed than the AISI 430 when hot rolled under similar conditions, which leads to improved ductility and less ridging in AISI 433 than AISI 430. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering / unrestricted

Stainless steels are very important engineering materials in a variety of applications such as in the food industry and nuclear power plants due to their combination of good mechanical properties and high corrosion resistance. However, ferrite-containing stainless steels are sensitive to the so-called ‘475°C embrittlement’, which is induced by phase separation of the ferrite phase, where it decomposes into Fe-rich ferrite (α) and Cr-rich ferrite (α'). The phase separation is accompanied with a severe loss of toughness. Therefore, the upper service temperature of ferrite-containing stainless steels in industrial applications has been limited to around 250°. In the present work, Fe-Cr based steels were mainly investigated by atom probe tomography. A new method based on the radial distribution function (RDF) was proposed to quantitatively evaluate both the wavelength and amplitude of phase separation in Fe-Cr alloys from the atom probe tomography data. Moreover, a simplified equation was derived to calculate the amplitude of phase separation. The wavelength and amplitude was compared with evaluations using the auto-correlation function (ACF) and Langer-Bar-on-Miller (LBM) method, respectively. The results show that the commonly used LBM method underestimates the amplitude of phase separation and the wavelengths obtained by RDF shows a good exponential relation with aging time which is expected from the theory. The RDF is also an effective method in detecting the phenomena of clustering and elemental partitioning. Furthermore, atom probe tomography and the developed quantitative analysis method have been applied to investigate the influence of different factors on the phase separation in Fe-Cr based alloys by the help of mainly mechanical property tests and atom probe tomography analysis. The study shows that: (1) the external tensile stress during aging enhances the phase separation in ferrite. (2) Phase separation in weld bead metals decomposes more rapidly than both the heat-affected-zone metals and the base metals mainly due to the high density of dislocations in the welding bead metals which could facilitate the diffusion. (3) The results show that Ni and Mn can enhance the phase separation comparing to the binary Fe-Cr alloy whereas Cu forms clusters during aging. (4) Initial clustering of Cr atoms was found after homogenization. Two factors, namely, clustering of Cr above the miscibility gap and clustering during quenching was suggested as the two responsible mechanisms. (5) The homogenization temperatures significantly influence the evolution of phase separation in Fe-46.5at.%Cr. / <p>QC 20140910</p> / Spinodal Project

Les aciers inoxydables ferritiques stabilisés, aussi performants dans de nombreux domaines et moins chers que les aciers inoxydables austénitiques, souffrent cependant d’une formabilité inférieure (mise en forme + défaut de chiffonnage / roping). Il convient donc d’optimiser les microstructures et textures finales de ces produits, ce qui passe entre autres par une meilleure connaissance de l’évolution du matériau durant le laminage à chaud (LAC).Des essais de bipoinçonnement effectués sur une machine Gleeble®, simulant la compression plane à cœur du matériau durant le LAC, ont permis de simuler des schémas de laminage mono et multipasses. Les effets de la déformation, de la température, de la vitesse de déformation, de la taille de grains initiale et de la composition chimique sur les évolutions dynamiques (durant une passe de laminage) et post-dynamiques (durant un temps interpasse) ont été investigués.Une passe de LAC fragmente la microstructure en cristallites par recristallisation dynamique continue (RDC). Une partie de ces cristallites deviendront les germes de la recristallisation post-dynamique (RPD) au cours du temps interpasse. Celui-ci se caractérise par la simultanéité d’activation de nouveaux germes, de la croissance de grains recristallisés au sein de zones écrouies mais également au détriment d’autres grains recristallisés.Le couplage d’un modèle de RDC existant avec un modèle de RPD créé à partir des observations expérimentales, permet de simuler des schémas de LAC multipasses et de retranscrire les effets de la majorité des paramètres opératoires. / Stabilized ferritic stainless steels are as efficient as austenitic stainless steels in many areas and less expensive. However, they suffer from a lower formability (forming + roping defect). It is therefore necessary to optimize the final microstructures and textures of these products, which requires in particular a better understanding of the evolution of the material during hot rolling.Plane strain compression tests carried out on a Gleeble® machine, reproducing the deformation during hot rolling in the center of the material, permitted to perform single- and multi-pass rolling schedules. The effects of deformation, temperature, strain rate, initial grain size and chemical composition on dynamic (during a rolling pass) and post- dynamic (during an inter-pass time) evolutions were investigated.A hot rolling pass fragments the microstructure and creates crystallites by continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX). A part of these crystallites becomes nuclei for the post-dynamic recrystallization (PDRX) during inter-pass time. The latter is characterized by the simultaneous activation of new nuclei and growth of recrystallized grains, not only within strain-hardened zones but also at the expense of other grains already recrystallized.The coupling of an existing CDRX model with a PDRX model based on experimental results allows to simulate multi-pass hot rolling schedules and to reproduce the effects of most of the operating parameters.

Duplex stainless steels (DSSs) are important engineering materials due to their combination of good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. However, as a consequence of their ferrite content, DSSs are sensitive to the so-called ‘475°C embrittlement’, which is induced by phase separation, namely, the ferrite decomposed into Fe-rich ferrite (α) and Cr-rich ferrite (α'), respectively. The phase separation is accompanied with a severe loss of toughness. Thus, the ‘475°C embrittlement’ phenomenon limits DSSs’ upper service temperature to around 250°C. In the present work, Fe-Cr binary model alloys and commercial DSSs from weldments were investigated for the study of phase separation in ferrite. Different techniques were employed to study the phase separation in model alloys and commercial DSSs, including atom probe tomography, transmission electron microscopy and micro-hardness test. Three different model alloys, Fe-25Cr, Fe-30Cr and Fe-35Cr (wt. %) were analyzed by atom probe tomography after different aging times. A new method based on radial distribution function was developed to evaluate the wavelength and amplitude of phase separation in these Fe-Cr binary alloys. The results were compared with the wavelengths obtained from 1D auto-correlation function and amplitudes from Langer-Bar-On-Miller method. It was found that the wavelengths from 1D auto-correlation function cannot reflect the 3D nano-scaled structures as accurate as those obtained by radial distribution function. Furthermore, the Langer-Bar-On-Miller method underestimates the amplitudes of phase separation. Commercial DSSs of SAF2205, 2304, 2507 and 25.10.4L were employed to investigate the connections between phase separation and mechanical properties from different microstructures (base metal, heat-affected-zone and welding bead) in welding. Moreover, the effect of external tensile stress during aging on phase separation of ferrite was also investigated. It was found that atom probe tomography is very useful for the analysis of phase separation in ferrite and the radial distribution function (RDF) is an effective method to compare the extent of phase separation at the very early stages. RDF is even more sensitive than frequency diagrams. In addition, the results indicate that the mechanical properties are highly connected with the phase separation in ferrite and other phenomena, such as Ni-Mn-Si-Cu clusters, that can also deteriorate the mechanical properties. / <p>QC 20130308</p>