Thomas Strabo Hummelshøj

Expanded austenite, crystallography and residual stress

Abstract The identity of expanded austenite as developing during low temperature nitriding and/or carburising of austenitic stainless steel has been under debate since the very first observation of this phase. In the present article, recent results obtained with (a) homogeneous samples of various uniform compositions and (b) unravelling of the contributions of stress–depth and composition–depth profiles in expanded austenite layers are summarised and discussed. It is shown through simulation of line profiles that the combined effects of composition gradients, stress gradients and stacking fault gradients can explain the observations in typical X-ray diffractograms.

Gaseous carburising of self-passivating Fe–Cr–Ni alloys in acetylene–hydrogen mixtures

Abstract Gaseous carburising of self-passivating Fe–Cr–Ni alloys in acetylene–hydrogen was investigated for temperatures up to 823 K. Acetylene–hydrogen gas mixtures allow both the activation of the surface and the subsequent carburising at a high and adjustable carburising potential. For relatively low temperatures, carbon stabilised expanded austenite develops, which has high hardness, while retaining the corrosion performance of the untreated alloy; for relatively high temperatures, Cr based carbides develop, and eventually, the material deteriorates by metal dusting corrosion.

Determination of Concentration Dependent Diffusion Coefficients of Carbon in Expanded Austenite

In the present paper various experimental procedures to experimentally determine the concentration dependent diffusion coefficient of carbon in expanded austenite are evaluated. To this end thermogravimetric carburization was simulated for various experimental conditions and the evaluated composition dependent diffusivity of carbon derived from the simulated experiments was compared with the input data. The most promising procedure for an accurate determination is shown to be stepwise gaseous carburizing of thin foils in a gaseous atmosphere; the finer the stepsize, the more accurate the approximation of the diffusivity. Thermogravimetry was applied to continuously monitor the weight change of thin foils of AISI 316 during carburizing in CO-H2 gas mixtures for one of the simulated experimental procedures.