• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.196-204
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• 2012

Corrosion failure of petrochemical facilities is one of the difficulties in maintenance, since operating conditions of crude oil production, storage, and refinement are very aggressive. UNS N08810, which has been used for crude oil transportation pipes and storage tanks in petrochemical industries, shows good resistance to general corrosion and localized corrosion in several environments. Among its environments, UNS N08810 showed better corrosion resistance in fuel gas containing sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid and sulfur. However, ductility and toughness at high temperature over about $500^{\circ}C$ were greatly reduced due to microstructural change. In general, welding process is the representative method to join the parts in industrial components. Because the alloy by welding can be sensitized and corroded, the manufacturing process should be controlled. In this work, UNS N08810 was used and heat treatment conditions including solution and stabilization treatments were controlled. Oxalic acid etch test by ASTM A262 Practice A was done to evaluate the qualitative sensitization in room temperature. Huey test by ASTM A262 Practice C was done to evaluate the intergranular corrosion rate in boiling 65% $HNO_3$ solution. Also, the microstructure by thermal history was analyzed. Experimental alloy showed high intergranular corrosion rate and its corrosion mechanism was elucidated.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.250-254
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• 2002

Intergranular corrosion of austenitic stainless steels is a conventional and momentous problem during welding and high temperature use. One of the major reasons for such intergranular corrosion is so-called sensitization, i.e., chromium depletion due to chromium carbide precipitation at grain boundaries. Conventional methods for preventing sensitization of austenitic stainless steels include reduction of carbon content in the material, stabilization of carbon atoms as non-chromium carbides by the addition of titanium, niobium or zirconium, local solution-heat-treatment by laser beam, etc. These methods, however, are not without drawbacks. Recent grain boundary structure studies have demonstrated that grain boundary phenomena strongly depend on the crystallographic nature and atomic structure of the grain boundary, and that grain boundaries with coincidence site lattices are immune to intergranular corrosion. The concept of "grain boundary design and control", which involves a desirable grain boundary character distribution, has been developed as grain boundary engineering. The feasibility of grain boundary engineering has been demonstrated mainly by thermomechanical treatments. In the present study, a thermomechanical treatment was tried to improve the resistance to the sensitization by grain boundary engineering. A type 304 austenitic stainless steel was pre-strained and heat-treated, and then sensitized, varying the parameters (pre-strain, temperature, time, etc.) during the thermomechanical treatment. The grain boundary character distribution was examined by orientation imaging microscopy. The intergranular corrosion resistance was evaluated by electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation and ferric sulfate-sulfuric acid tests. The sensitivity to intergranular corrosion was reduced by the thermomechanical treatment and indicated a minimum at a small roll-reduction. The frequency of coincidence-site-lattice boundaries indicated a maximum at a small strain. The ferric sulfate-sulfuric acid test showed much smaller corrosion rate in the thermomechanically-treated specimen than in the base material. An excellent intergranular corrosion resistance was obtained by a small strain annealing at a relatively low temperature for long time. The optimum parameters created a uniform distribution of a high frequency of coincidence site lattice boundaries in the specimen where corrosive random boundaries were isolated. The results suggest that the thermomechanical treatment can introduce low energy segments in the grain boundary network by annealing twins and can arrest the percolation of intergranular corrosion from the surface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.612-618
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• 2000

The WC/WC grain boundary structure and intergranular segregation in WC-Co and WC-VC-Co cemented carbides were investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy in order to elucidate whether contiguous boundaries were present or not at the atomic level. Some grain boundaries were separated by liquid phase, while others were contiguous at the atomic level. Cobalt was found to be segregated to WC/WC grain boundaries in WC-Co. Cobalt and vanadium were co-segregated to grain boundaries in WC-VC-Co. The segregation width in both materials was about 6 nm. These results suggest that the vanadium present in contiguous boundaries acts as an effective barrier to the migration of boundaries during sintering and annealing. This could explain the grain growth inhibiting mechanism of VC added to WC-Co.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.265-273
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• 2013

Ti-stabilized 11 wt% Cr ferritic stainless steels (FSSs) for automotive exhaust systems have been experienced intergranular corrosion (IC) in some heat-affected zone (HAZ). The effects of sensitizing heat-treatment and silicon on IC were studied. Time-Temperature-Sensitization (TTS) curves showed that sensitization to IC was observed at the steels heat-treated at the temperature lower than $650^{\circ}C$ and that silicon improved IC resistance. The sensitization was explained by chromium depletion theory, where chromium is depleted by precipitation of chromium carbide during sensitizing heat-treatment. It was confirmed with the results from the analysis of precipitates as well as the thermodynamical prediction of stable phases. In addition, the role of silicon on IC was explained with the stabilization of grain boundary. In other words, silicon promoted the formation of the grain boundaries with low energy where precipitation was suppressed and consequently, the formation of Cr-depleted zone was retarded. The effect of silicon on the formation of grain boundaries with low energy was proved by the analysis of coincidence site lattice (CSL) grain boundary, which is a typical grain boundary with low energy.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.27-34
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• 1990

Integranular corrosion behaviors of KAL (Knife Line Attack) and mechanical properties such as tensile and creep rupture were investigated for the tube material used for nearly 20 years under the condition of 463.deg. C and 28 $kg/cm^2$. Based and weld metal were austenitic stainless steel AISI 321 containing Ti, AISI 347 containing Nb, respectively. KLA is a kind of the intergranular corrosion which often occurs just near the HAZ (heat affected zone) of AISI 321 and AISI 347 stainless steel due to the grain boundary sensitization. In KLA zone, intergranular corrosion crack has propagated outwards from the inner surface and carbides of white and narrow band type assuming as (Cr, Fe) carbide were confirmed. All the delta-ferrite formed in the weld metal during weld solidification has been transformed into sigma-phase since delta-ferrte was exposed for 20 years at 463.deg. C. Elongation was very low at the range from room temperature to 600.deg. C and it was confirmed that creep-rupture properties were not consideralbly affected.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.244-249
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• 2017

To get deeper insight into the effect of intergranular additives in sintered Nd-Fe-B magnet and consequently improve the properties better, the interaction between additives (oxide, nitride, and carbide) and Nd-rich phase in the temperature range of 298.15-1400 K was analyzed thermodynamically. It can be found that the oxide additives became less stable than nitrides and carbides. Except for calcium oxide, almost all oxides could react with Nd from Nd-rich phase. To be different from oxide additives, the mechanism of nitrides and carbides was defined with various elements, either reaction with Nd from Nd-rich phase or not. The two different mechanisms would show different effects on the microstructure and hence properties of magnet. The thermodynamic analysis had a better agreement with the experimental information.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.211-212
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• 2002

Friction and wear of pressureless sintered Ti(C,N)-WC ceramics were studied using a ball-on-reciprocating flat apparatus in open air. The silicon nitride ball and the cemented carbide (WC-Co) ball were used against the Ti(C,N)-WC plate samples. The friction coefficients of the Ti(C,N)-WC samples against the silicon nitride ball and the cemented carbide ball were about 0.57 and 0.3, respectively. The wear coefficient of the sample without WC addition was 5 times as large as that of the sample with 10 mole % WC addition when tested against the silicon nitride ball under 98 N. The higher wear coefficient of Ti(C,N)-0WC was explained in part by larger grain size. Wear occurred mainly by grain dislodgment after intergranular cracking mainly caused by the accumulated stress within the grains.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.63-71
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• 2002

One of the shortcoming of ferritic stainless steels is their limited toughness. The most important factor governing the toughness of ferritic stainless steels is hewn to be their interstitial contents. Due to the limited solubility of carbon and nitrogen in the ferrite matrix, it is difficult to avoid carbide and nitride precipitates. In the study, the role of nitrogen on the toughness of 260r-2Mo superferritic stainless steel welds has been investigated using alloys containing various nitrogen levels between 100 and 1640 ppm. Mechanical properties of weld metals have been evaluated by microhardness, Charpy impact test and notch tensile test. The alloys are mainly embrittled by the grain boundary and intragranular nitride precipitation. Grain boundary precipitates are considered to be more deleterious than intrauanular nitrides. Fracture mechanism have been elucidated through microscopic evaluation of notch tensile test

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2022

The electrochemical corrosion properties of austenitic AISI 304 steel subjected to a long-term-aging heat treatment were investigated. AISI 304 steel was aged at 700 ℃ for up to 10,000 h. The variation in the microstructure of the aged specimens was observed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Electrochemical polarization experiments were performed to obtain the corrosion current density (Icorr) and corrosion potential (Ecorr). Analyses indicated that the metastable intermetallic carbide M₂₃C₆ formed near the γ/γ grain boundary and coarsened with increasing aging time; meanwhile, the δ-ferrite decomposed into the σ phase and into M₂₃C₆ carbide. As the aging time increased, the current density increased, but the corrosion potential of the austenitic specimen remained high (at least 0.04 ㎛/cm²). Because intergranular carbide was absent, the austenitic annealed specimen exhibited the highest pitting resistance. Consequently, the corrosion resistance of austenitic AISI 304 steel decreased as the aging heat treatment time increased.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.206-211
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• 2019

Silicon carbide (SiC) thin films become superhard when they have microstructures of nanocolumnar crystalline grains (NCCG) with an intergranular amorphous SiC matrix. We investigated the role of ion bombardment and deposition temperature in forming the NCCG in SiC thin films. A direct-current (DC) unbalanced magnetron sputtering method was used with pure Ar as sputtering gas to deposit the SiC thin films at fixed target power of 200 W and chamber pressure of 0.4 Pa. The Ar ion bombardment of the deposited films was conducted by applying a negative DC bias voltage 0-100 V to the substrate during deposition. The deposition temperature was varied between room temperature and $450^{\circ}C$. Above a critical bias voltage of -80 V, the NCCG formed, whereas, below it, the SiC films were amorphous. Additionally, a minimum thermal energy (corresponding to a deposition temperature of $450^{\circ}C$ in this study) was required for the NCCG formation. Transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and glancing angle X-ray diffraction analysis (GAXRD) were conducted to probe the samples' structural characteristics. Of those methods, Raman spectroscopy was a particularly efficient non-destructive tool to analyze the formation of the SiC NCCG in the film, whereas GAXRD was insufficiently sensitive.