The Microstructures and Corrosion of Carbon Steel

after Subjected to Heat Treatment then Thermal

Cycling, Oil Cooled
Authors: Abdlmanam. S. A. Elmaryami, Prof. Dr. Haji Badrul Bin Omar, Prof. Dr. Khalid
Bin Hasnan and Prof. Dr. Mohamed Elshayeb
Address: University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Mechanical Engineering Departmen
864 !arit "a#a, $atu !ahat, %&h&r, Malasia,
ABSTRACT
Thermal cycling tests were carried out on carbon steel u to !"# C$" A single run was
erformed at uer temerature of %&&
o
C and lower temerature of '&
o
C cooled in oil" (or
se)eral numbers of cycles u to '& cycles for an accurate determination of heating and cooling
times"
The effet of thermal ylin! on the following roerties were e)aluated, microstructures,
and corrosion rate"
"rom the obtained results, it was found that* for all tyes of carbon steels, grain si+e
increased with increasing the number of thermal cycling"
"rom the obtained test results, it was found that* the tye of corrosion is uniform attac,-
thermal cycling caused a considerable increase in corrosion rate esecially at low cycles"
The orrosion rate increases with increasing the carbon content for the thermal cycling of
.annealed samles/, while decreases for the thermal cycling of .temered samles/"
Keywords: Heat Treatment, Thermal Cycling, Microstructure, Corrosion, Steel, Hardening,
Temering and Annealing
1. Introduction
0lain carbon steels are emerging as bac,bone structural materials in high temerature
alications such as turbine engine, missiles, etc"
Carbon steels ha)e many ad)antages, high strength, and ductile materials and )ery easy to
alloyed with other elements"""""""" 1tc" On the other hand its disad)antages are the high ability
to corrosion" So, a lot of researches ha)e been studied corrosion mechanisms through which a
better understanding is obtained of the causes of corrosion and the a)ailable means for
re)enting or minimi+ing resulting damage" There are many factors which ha)e a great
influence on corrosion rate, 1n)ironments, metallurgical factors, effect of stress" 1g" Halyna
#humalo, et al 2R"!3 studied the resistance of new austenitic ferritic steels to stress corrosion
4hile #.P.At$ins and %.D. Santlebury 2R"#3" et al studied the acti)ity coefficient of sodium
chloride in a simulated ore solution en)ironment" S.H.&han!, S.B. 'yon, et al 2R"'3
in)estigated the retention of assi)ity on iron after se)eral months5 atmosheric e6osure"
Shin(ihi )oma*a$i et al 2R"73 using si6 different steels" Slow strain rate tensile test and
thermal disrution sectroscoic analysis were alied to secimens subjected to wet8dry
cyclic corrosion tests in a 9aC: solution" Hide$i )atayama, et al 2R"%3 was conducted the
corrosion simulation in a chamber to carbon steels in atmosheric en)ironment by controlling
the en)ironmental factors such as temerature, relati)e humidity and temerature of carbon
steels" A$ira Tahara and Tadashi Shinohara, et al 2R";3" They found that there are two ,inds
of corrosion atterns were distinguished, uniform corrosion and local corrosion and the
addition of 'u, (i and 'r changed the form of the corroded surface from the uniform
corrosion to the combined attern .uniform corrosion < local corrosion/ 4hile M.+amashita,
et al", 2R"=3, studied the initial rust formation rocess on carbon steel under 9a#SO7 and
9aC: solution films with )et>dry cycles using synchrotron radiation ?8rays" ,obert E.
Melhers, et al", 2R"@3 reorted that, the corrosion loss )s" time beha)iour is initially highly
non8linear and then almost linear until corrosion roduct formation begins to control the rate
of corrosion" On the other hand a mathematical modelling was carried out by Hiroshi )ihira,
1t al", 2R"A3 to corrosion rediction for weathering steels"
2. The Iron-Carbon Equilibrium Diaram :
A study of the constitution and structure of all steels and irons must first start with the Bron8
Carbon 1Cuilibrium Diagram, the Bron8 Carbon Constitutional Diagram should e6tend from
* percent Bron to * percent cementite .;";=C$/, the different lain carbon steels were
used, shown in (igure"#"!"
!. E"#E$I%E&T'( )*$K+:
-.. Materials:
Bn this wor, three different hyo8eutectoid and one hyer8eutectoid carbon steels ha)e been
used their comosition are gi)en in Table '"!"
Table"'"!" The different lain carbon steels were used and mar,ed"
Secimen 9o" C$
&', &'', and &''' . to study the annealed / ', '', and ''' .to study the temered martensite/ &"!%
&7, & 77, and &777 .to study the annealed/ 7, 77, and 777 .to study the temered martensite/ &"'
&;, &;;, and &;;; .to study the annealed/ ;, ;;, and ;;; .to study the temered martensite/ &"=
&%, &%%, and &%%% .to study the annealed/ %, %%, and %%% .to study the temered martensite/ !"#
-./ Heat(Treatment and thermal yled e01eriments:
Heat treatment and thermal cycled e6eriments were conducted for two reasons:
' 8 To study the effect of thermal cycling 2!&, #&, and '& times3 on the microstructures"
, 8 To study the effect of thermal cycling 2!&, #&, and '& times3 on the corrosion" The heat8
treatment and thermal cycling were carried out in the furnace* 2Carbolite 8 Bam ford, Sheffield3"
(urnace 9o"!&>@#>!!'&, tye ET('<0D Enland, S'&#AE" (or this furnace the heating and
cooling rate were recorded as shown in (ig"'"! and (ig"'"# resecti)ely*

(ig"'"!" The furnace heating rate" (ig"'"#" The furnace cooling rate
-./... The first sta!e: heat(treatment:

-././. The seond sta!e: thermal ylin!:
The annealed and the temered samles were each di)ided in to three grous, and each grou
were subjected to a different numbers of thermal cycling .!&, #&, and '& cycles/" All samles
were subjected to the same heating cycle, in which the samles were heated below A! to
%&&
o
C and held in the furnace for !% min" Three samles of each heating cycle were cooled in
oil" The total time of a single cycle was 7& min, as shown in (igs"'"%"

2ote: 3O1tial miroso1e, tests4:
The a)ailable otical microscoes .R1BCH1RT META+A", Type ,eiss
24est Fermany3/ Bn the Material Science :aboratory of Faryounis Eni)ersity
4ere used to characteri+e the microstructures of all the test secimens"
-./.- The third sta!e: orrosion testin!:
Thousand of corrosion tests are made e)ery year "The )alue and reliability of the data
Obtained deend on details in)ol)ed" Enfortunately, many tests are not conducted or reorted
roerly, and the information obtained is misleading" Corrosion rate has been measured by
using the weight loss method for thus a 2.Bulgur/ cal)arias .Garese/ D1C"MB9"#78!8#&&' 9&
(ig"'"'" Annealing cycle diagram for the samles were used"
(ig"'"7" Heat treatment diagram for Cuenched and temered
samles were used"
(ig"'"%" T"T" Diagram shows the 2!&, #& and '& cycled cooled in oil3"
#&%#A%3 were used" The difference between the weight samle after and before subjected it to
thermal cycling then remo)al the corroded layer by a ieces of wood .more soft than steel/"
This loss of weight .H4/ is considered as weights of corroded materials were*
(osses o- corrosion . / 0) 1 )
2
3 122
4here 0): losses of weight .mgr/ due to thermal cycling"
)
2
* original weight .gram/"
4. $E+5(T '&D DI+C5++I*&:
5... The effet of heat treatment and thermal ylin! on the mirostrutures:
The microstructural changes caused by heat8treatment were in)estigated to understand the
beha)iour made of the carbon steel" .(igs"'"'" and '"7/ shows that the grain si+e which roduced
as a result of temering is less than the grains si+e roduced by annealing"
4hile the (ig".'"%/ show the samles of microstructures after thermal cycling" This figure clears
that the grain si+e become bigger than heat treated grain si+e" This may be due to the effect of
thermal cycling" Thermal cycling caused residual dimensional changes of the grain si+e
deending on the cycling schedule" The grows in grain si+e increases with increasing the
number of thermal cycling" The ability of annealed steel grain si+e to grow under thermal
cycling is more comared with temered steel"
4.2. The e--ect o- thermal cyclin on corrosion rate:
5./... Annealed steel:
The samles which early annealed then subjected to a number of thermal cycling !&, #&, and '&
cycles then e6osure to corrosion attac, for #7&hr" 4e used oil as a cooling media, (ig"7"!
shows the effect of thermal cycling on corrosion rate" The increasing of thermal cycling leads to
increase the corrosion rate for carbon steel with increase in carbon content" This increase can be
di)ided in two stages*
Bn the first stage the corrosion rate increases gradually with increasing thermal cycling u to !&
cycles" Abo)e that .more than !& cycles/ the corrosion rate becomes constant rate without any
change until '& cycles" This beha)iour can be attributed to the increase in the amount of residual
stresses, this amount of residual stress increases with increasing cycles u to .!& cycles/ and
there is no increasing in residual stresses after that" This figure shows that the carbon contents
ha)e a great influence in corrosion rate" By increasing carbon contents the corrosion rate
increases" The lead to introduce residual stresses which ha)e strong influence on corrosion rate"
Based on the abo)e results, it can be safely concluded that thermal cycling introduced residual
stresses which leads to increase in corrosion rate" Stages by increasing the number of cycles
corrosion rate increases through two deending on amount of thermal cycling"
Bn addition hyereutectoid steels ha)e higher corrosion rate comared with hyoeutectoid steels
at the same number of thermal cycling as shown in (ig"7"!"
5././. Tem1ered steel:
(ig"7"#" shows the results of this test" This figure shows nearly the same ste but oosite
beha)iour" 4here in case of annealing, the high carbon content steels mean that high
corrosion rate" 4hile in case of temering rocess the high carbon content steels show
the least amount of corrosion rate" This means that by increasing the carbon content,
corrosion rate decreases"
Also, another differ is the notice reduction in corrosion rate for all tye of carbon steels"
Another differs, the second stage becomes unlimited and the corrosion rate nearly
gradually increases with increasing thermal cycling"
C*&C(5+I*&
The results of this in6esti!ation sho7 that:
1" (or all tyes of carbon steels, grain si+e increased with increasing the number of
thermal cycling"
2" Thermal cycling causes uniform corrosion attac, for lain carbon steel"
!" Carbon as element alloy has a great influence on corrosion rate, in case of thermal
cycling .the annealed samles/, the corrosion rate increased with increasing the carbon content,
while in case of thermal cycling .the temered samles/, the corrosion rate increased with
decreasing the carbon content"
4" Corrosion rate of the first stage gradually increases with the number of thermal cycling u to !%
cycles, then it ta,e steady state u to '& cycles"
,eommendation: -&r -uture papers* we will change the cooling media and thermal cycling
$e-erences:
!" Halyna Chumalo, Stress Corrosion Crac,ing Resistance of 9ew Austenitic (erritic Steels,
Iournal Corrosion Science 1ngineering, Golume ! 0aer A, !AA@.
#" C"0" At,ins and I"D"Scantlebury, the Acti)ity Coefficient of Sodium Chloride in a Simulated
0ore Solution 1n)ironment, Iournal Corrosion Science 1ngineering, Golume ! 0aer #, !AA%.
'" S"H"Jhang, S"B":yon, Retention of 0assi)ity on Bron after Se)eral Months" Atmosheric
16osure, Iournal Corrosion Science 1ngineering, Golume! 0aer!, !AA%.
7" Shin8ichi Koma+a,i, Ka+uya Kobayashi, ToshiheiMisawa, and Tatsuo (u,u+umi,
1n)ironment embrittlement of automobile sring steels caused by wet8dry cyclic corrosion in
sodium chloride solution , Corrosion Science, Golume 7=, 0ages #7%&8#7;&, #&&%.
%" Hide,i Katayama, Ka+uhi,o 9ada, Hiroyu,i Masuda, Ma,oto 9agasawa, Masayu,i
Btaga,i, and Kunihiro 4atanabe, Corrosion simulation of carbon steels in atmosheric
en)ironment, Corrosion Science, Golume 7=, 0ages #%AA8#;&;, #&&%.
;" A,ira Tahara and Tadashi Shinohara, Bnfluence of the alloy element on corrosion
morhology of the low alloy steels e6osed to the atmosheric en)ironment, Corrosion
Science, Golume 7=, 0ages #%@A8#%A@, #&&%.
=" M"Lamashita, H"Konishi, T"Ko+a,ura, I"Mi+u,i, and H"Echida, Bn situ obser)ation of
initial rust formation rocess on carbon steel under 9a#SO7 and 9a C: solution films
with wet>dry cycles using synchrotron radiation, ?8rays Corrosion Science, Golume 7=, 0ages
#7A#8#7A@, #&&%.
@" Robert 1" Melchers, and Robert Ieffrey, 1arly corrosion of mild steel in sea water,
Corrosion Science, Golume 7=, 0ages !;=@8!;A', #&&%.
A" Hiroshi Kihira, Ta,ehide Senuma, Mutsuto Tana,a, Kiyoshi 9ishio,a, Lasumori (ujii, and
Luta,a Sa,ata, Acorrosion rediction method for weathering steels, Corrosion Science,
Golume 7=, 0ages #'==8#'A&, #&&%.
!&" Fuy :ac,, 1lements of 0hysical Metallurgy, Third 1dition, coyrightM!A@7 by Addison8
4estley 0ublishing Comany, Bnc.