Papers by Keyword: Diffusion

Abstract: State-of-the-art aluminide coatings for high pressure aeroturbines rely on their chemical stability through the addition of platinum. In this work, the influence of diffusion on the composition and microstructure of Pt/Al coatings is investigated upon the different processing steps. Upon heat treatment of the electrodeposited Pt layers, the ready solubility of Pt in the ’-Ni3Al and its concentration gradient allow fast ingress of this element in the coating in spite of the higher diffusion coefficients of the substrate elements. The relatively high Pt contents at the surface thereafter promote Al ingress upon aluminisation by creating a greater concentration gradient between the coating atmosphere and the coating. This results in a -NiAl based coating grown by both Ni outward and Al inward diffusion. The diffusivity of Pt, Ni and Al being dependant on the stoichiometry of the -NiAl coating, different metal particles may precipitate mainly at the NiAl grain boundaries. In addition, the diffusion of the refractory elements towards the interdiffusion layer seems to be hurdled by increasing the Pt content. As a result of the countercurrent diffusion of species, different microstructures and compositions will appear across the coatings.

Abstract: Diffusion iron aluminide coatings have shown excellent resistance to high temperature oxidation in air, corrosive atmospheres and steam. A study of the diffusion behaviour of slurry applied diffusion aluminide coatings deposited on ferritic steel have been carried out under a 100% flowing steam atmosphere for up to 50,000 h at 650 °C. The results have shown that initially, the coating forms by outward growth possibly including the dissolution of the steel in molten aluminium. At later stages, during exposure to steam at 650 °C, aluminium diffuses inward and moreover, Fe also diffuses outward resulting in the progressive development of Kirkendall porosity. Results have also indicated that in order to form a pure protective Al2O3 scale the Al wt.% has to be > 4. Below this content Al-Fe mixed oxides develop exhibiting a less protective behaviour.

Abstract: Diffusion of 65Zn in two commercial Mg-based alloys AZ91 and QE22 with short Saffil fibers was studied. Experiments were carried out in the temperature interval 648 – 728 K by serial sectioning method. The effective diffusion coefficients Deff were compared with 65Zn diffusion coefficients Dv obtained with the same alloys without Saffil fibers. The evaluation of the influence of the interface between the matrix and the fibers upon Deff was done and the zinc diffusion coefficient Di in the interface boundary matrix/Saffil was estimated. Unlike the Arrhenius-like behavior of volume diffusion in both alloys, it was observed that the temperature dependence of both Deff and Di was significantly concave in the measured temperature interval. This behavior was attributed to relaxation of thermo-elastic stresses in the composite induced by a large difference between coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of Saffil fibers and metal matrix. The maximum values of Deff and Di, respectively, lie close to 693 K, where CTE has a minimum.

Abstract: A field-assisted solid state ion exchange (FASSIE) approach is used to dope silicate glasses with mono- and/or multivalent ions, in which the diffusion of ions coming from a film deposited onto the glass surface is driven by an external electric field. Metal precipitation to form nanoparticles may take place during the ion exchange, depending on the process parameters, or it can be induced by irradiation with high power laser beams. Characterization of silicate glass samples doped with either gold or silver is performed by optical absorption and transmission electron microscopy.

Abstract: The chemistry and the kinetics of the reduction of calcium containing CaFeSO and Ca2FeCuSO3) oxysulfides in a mixture of flowing gases that contains (75% CO) carbon monoxide and argon have been investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray diffraction. Experiments were carried out on the synthesized samples by heating up to 1270 K with heating rates of 5-20 K/min. The Netzsch Thermokinetics program was used for the analysis of the experimental data. Kinetic parameters of reduction processes are determined.

Abstract: During the in-line coating process of Mn-strengthened-Interstitial-Free-steels, selective oxidation under low dew-point atmospheres may result in surface oxides that are not wetted by the coating alloy. In the current study, we investigate the formation of external and internal oxides in the metal in order to characterize the influence of fast path diffusion. The short-time oxidation in the metal was carried out in a gold-image furnace and the resulting external and internal oxides were characterized through scanning-electron microscopy. An IF steel sample containing 1.5wt.% Mn was used and the effects of dew point (DP) ranging from –75 to –15oC on oxidation was investigated at 800oC by varying the PH2/PH2O ratio in the oxidizing gas. Simulations were carried out by considering the combined effect of diffusion and mass transfer represented by a system of partial differential equations. The model equations were solved using finite element method in a Multiphysics modeling software COMSOL. The experimental and simulated results were found to be in agreement, and showed that, for DP up to –30oC, gas phase mass transport of oxidant gas controls the oxidation which results in exclusively external oxide nodules distributed uniformly on the surface. At –15oC > DP > –30oC, the oxidation evolves as ridges along grain boundaries and the simulations indicate that this is due to solid state diffusion control and the controlling mechanism is fast path diffusion through the alloy. At this point, internal oxides also start to appear.

Abstract: Diffusion tests in porous media are quite sensitive and long lasting procedures compared to permeability tests, which are usually more reliable and of shorter duration. Both diffusion and advection phenomena are dependent on the tortuosity of the material tested. A relevant question is to know whether it is possible to correlate permeability tortuosity p and diffusion tortuosity d. Several diffusion and permeability tests have been performed on non-uniform sand specimens having different grain size distribution. For each specimen, both the permeability and diffusion coefficients have been measured and two tortuosity factors (permeability and diffusion) have been back calculated. A theoretical model has been proposed to estimate d from p for a non-uniform granular material. The maximum particle diameter dmax is used to determine the maximum hydraulic diameter dh-max using the Hydraulic Radius Theory (HRT) for a 3D arrangement of spheres of same diameter dmax. Then, a filling factor  is applied to dh-max in order to capture the fact that smaller grains tend to fill the voids present in between the bigger particles. The filling factor is based on the coefficient of uniformity Cu. Relatively good results are obtained so that this model allows estimating the diffusion properties from a simple permeability test rapidly and at a fraction of the diffusion test cost.

Abstract: The effects of volume fraction at different milling times and impact forces, defined as the ball-to-powder weight ratio (BPR), on the elemental diffusion during mechanical alloying process of Al-4.5wt%Cu/SiC composite were evaluated and compared with the SiC free samples (Al-4.5wt%Cu alloy) in the current work. X-ray diffraction patterns of the monolithic and composite samples imply the fact that a higher level of mutual diffusion of constituents, Al and Cu, happened in the matrix in the presence of SiC particles. This effect of the reinforcing particles can be attributed to the increased densities of dislocation and vacancy caused by the presence of SiC particles within the matrix giving rise to increasing the micro-strain, lattice parameter and decreasing the crystallite size.

Abstract: The study of mechanical alloying (MA) process on the immiscible Al–Cu systems having positive heats of mixing has been investigated by the earlier researchers. However, a comprehensive understanding of the diffusion phenomenon during the mechanical alloying process is still far from complete. The effects of milling time and impact force, defined as the ball-to-powder weight ratio (BPR), on the elemental diffusion during mechanical alloying process of Al-4.5wt%Cu were evaluated in the current work. X-ray diffraction results showed that increasing the milling time and impact force led to increasing the dislocation as because of increasing the micro-strain, lattice parameter and decreasing the crystallite size. As a result of this, the diffusion rate was enhanced. The interpretation of data resulted have been discussed in details.

Abstract: This article presents and discusses a network model to describe and predict the behaviour and performance of catalyst particles. The differences and advantages of this approach when compared to the continuous models currently used in practice are highlighted and critically assessed. The local structure of the catalyst particle is modelled using a three dimensional network model made up of cylindrical pores and nodes of negligible volume. In the pores a homogenous first-order reaction takes place, coupled with the diffusion. For steady state conditions the concentration field can be obtained solving a sparse linear system of equations, obtained by solving the mass balance equations written for the network nodes and using the concentration profile in the network pores. The influence of the boundary conditions and the network sizes was investigated, showing the results in particular that the nature of the boundary conditions can have a profound impact in the predictions of the model.