The Influences of Water Vapor/Hydrogen Ratio, Gas-Flow Rate and Antimony on the Surface Oxidation of Trip Steels

In the current paper, we are reporting the results from an investigation of the surface and sub-surface oxidation of a TRIP steel containing 2 wt.% Mn and 0.5 wt.% Al with and without 0.03 wt.% Sb. The oxidizing conditions in the gas were successively varied in terms of the linear gas flow-rate and dew-point, from conditions were gas-phase mass transport limited conditions prevailed, to those were solid state processes became the rate determining conditions. It was found, that at sufficient low oxidizing conditions (defined as flow-rate/dew-point), the metal surfaces were clear of any external oxides, and as the oxidizing conditions were increased, Mn- and Si- oxide nodules formed along with magnetite. As the oxidizing conditions were increased further, a dense magnetite layer was present. The limits of the various regions were experimentally quantified and a proposed hypothesis for their occurrences is presented. No obvious effect of Sb was noted in this micro-structural research of the oxides that results from the various conditions investigated in this study.