Papers by Author: S.E. Kuri

Abstract: In the present work, it is evaluated the effect of water and other contaminants of alcohol fuel on the corrosion behavior of different materials, which can constitute vehicles, storage and transportation fuels systems. For such, 5 metallic materials (zamak, low-carbon steel, stainless steel, and two Al alloys) were chosen and 5 alcoholic solutions were prepared: anhydrous ethanol (AEAC; solution 1); hydrated ethanol (AEHC; solution 2); AEAC and water with some impurities (AEAC + 6 % “corrosive” water; solution 3); AEHC and water with some impurities (AEHC + 6 % “corrosive” water; solution 4); and, AEAC and tap water (AEAC + 6 % tap water; solution 5). The crevice corrosion was investigated in static immersion tests, which were carried out at 50 °C for 2 months. The evaluation of the corrosive process was carried out by visual inspection, weight loss, optic microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, some quality parameters of the alcoholic solutions (specific mass, alcoholic content, pH, and conductivity) was analyzed in order to determine the influence of corrosion of the materials on them. The results have shown that crevice corrosion of all materials mostly occurred in solutions 3-5, which had a high amount of water and impurities. Some corrosion rates in such solutions were 90-400 times higher than those obtained in AEAC and AEHC. Among the materials, zamak and carbon steel suffered severe corrosive attack. The physicochemical properties of alcoholic solutions employed in the tests also changed, mainly the increase of pH and conductivity was observed. Therefore, the results demonstrate that the quality control of alcohol fuel is essential in order to avoid the damage of engine parts and storage and transportation systems. Specially, water, sulphate, chloride and acetate content must be monitored.

Abstract: An expanded austenite layer is formed on the surfaces of austenitic stainless steels that are nitrided under low-temperature plasma. This S phase is an iron alloy metastable phase supersaturated with nitrogen. We have identified a similar expanded ferrite or ferritic S phase for nitrided ferritic (BCC) stainless steels. Samples of austenitic AISI 304L and AISI 316L and ferritic AISI 409L stainless steels were plasma-nitrided at 350, 400, 450 and 500°C, and the structural and corrosion characteristics of the modified layers were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electrochemical tests. For the austenitic AISI 304L stainless steel, the results showed that a hard S phase layer was formed on the surface, without corrosion resistance degradation, by using low plasma temperatures (350 and 400°C). A similar behavior was observed for the austenitic AISI 316L stainless steel: the modified layers formed at 350 and 400°C were constituted mainly by the S phase. Plasma-nitriding treatment of the ferritic AISI 409L stainless steel caused the formation of a layer having high amount of nitrogen. XRD measurements indicated high strain states for the modified layers formed on the three stainless steels, being more pronounced for the ferritic S phase.