Materials Science Forum Vol. 1106

Abstract: For the sake of environmental protection and energy conservation, traditional phosphate pretreatments have been gradually prohibited worldwide during automobile productions. As a promising substitute, the green and environment-friendly zirconate pretreatment technology is developing rapidly. However, because the thickness of zirconium conversion coatings is commonly ranged in nanoscale, its covering capability for small defects is inferior to that of phosphate film, which may have a detrimental impact on the service performance of automotive steel sheets. In this study, comparing the surface characteristics of cold rolled auto steel sheets before and after zirconate treatment, the effects of zirconium conversion coating on the surface defect transmission and the corrosion resistance of the sheet were investigated. The results showed that although the defects were detected and recognized after the treatment, the coating was able to grow normally at the surface of small defects and effectively improve the corrosion resistance of the defects. The surface corrosion resistance for some types of defects was basically equivalent to that of the intact surfaces.

Abstract: Mg-Li system alloys also has excellent cold-workability compared to commercial hcp-structured Mg alloys. However, Mg-Li alloys have poor corrosion resistance because not only that is Mg-based alloy but Li as a major alloying element is a less noble metal. For example, Mg-Li alloy sheet indicates high corrosion rate and exfoliation corrosion as a result of long-term corrosion test. The authors reported Mg-14 mass%Li-3 mass%Al alloy has the highest corrosion resistance in β-type solid solution alloy. Even though the optimized alloy composition, the alloy does not have enough corrosion resistance for practical use. In this study, anodized coating on Mg-Li alloy using phosphate solution was investigated. Anodizing of Mg-Li alloy facilitates the dissolution of substrate because of high Li concentration in this alloy. Therefore, the anodizing conditions were widely examined. As a result, the coating with approximately 15-20 μm of the surface layer was successfully formed. The surface layer was composed of MgAl₂O₄ and some phosphorus compounds. The thickness of anodized layer varied with the anodizing conditions. The dense surface layer was formed at a certain anodizing voltage and the corrosion resistance of anodized Mg-Li alloys was improved. However, the surface has some cracks and large flaky compounds. The formation mechanism of dense layer during anodizing were discussed.

Abstract: In Atmospheric Plasma Spraying (APS), it is important to understand the controlling factors dominating molten metal droplets’ reaction dynamics to control final coating compositions and properties. The present paper focuses on a novel Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of mass transfer mechanisms of an inflight molten metal droplet leading to droplet oxidation control during APS. The onset conditions of droplet internal circulation and its effect on the deoxidizer oxidation behavior during APS are theoretically examined. Moreover, rapidly supplying these elements from the inside to the droplet surface requires the rapid switching of the mass transfer mechanism to rapid convective flow due to a very limited in-flight time of less than 1ms. The temperature and velocity variations within the droplet would influence the thermo-physical properties of the droplet and the plasma gas and it controls the onset of the internal circulations within the droplets. A novel User Defined Function (UDF) is developed to capture the onset of Hill’s vortex formation and its effect on the rapid-rate convective mass transfer mechanism during APS. Further, a detailed analysis of particle size effect on in-flight in-situ deoxidation during APS of NiAlC droplets was performed. It is observed that the smaller size droplets will undergo more severe oxidation during a flight than larger size droplets due to more molecules of O2 available for reaction in the smaller droplet.

Abstract: Metallic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) consisting of a bond coating and a top coating have been extensively utilized for protecting the walls of rocket combustion chambers. However, standard coating systems often encounter failures due to the significant differences in coating composition and thermal expansion coefficient compared to the substrate under high heat flux conditions. To protect liquid rocket combustion chamber walls, a novel metallic multilayer TBC system applied with atmospheric plasma spraying is developed in the present work. It attempted to deposit dense Ni-based alloy and Cu-based bonding coatings with low oxide contents achieved by introducing boron as a deoxidizer element through atmospheric plasma spraying. The structural stability of the TBC was assessed through high temperature thermal exposure experiments, while the thermal cycle life is evaluated using laser thermal shock. Results show that the NiCrCu2B and CuNi2B bonding coatings prepared through in situ deoxygenation effect of boron exhibit dense structures, low oxide content, and excellent bonding quality. The high temperature thermal exposure experiment reveals that the multilayer structural TBC can withstand 850 °C for 10 hours without the formation of Kirkendal effect pores. Moreover, the thermal cycling life results indicate that the multilayer structural TBC designed in this study, employing a composition gradient transition and the in situ deoxygenation effect of boron, possesses a significantly improved thermal cycle lifetime compared to traditional structural TBCs.

Abstract: Thermal spray techniologies are very efficient to deposit metal coatings, which have been applied to different industrial fields for protection of metals from wear and corrosion. However, severe oxidation during inflight of spray particles introduces large amount of oxide inclusions in the coating which limits lamellar bonding formation and thus full utilization of coating material performance potential. In this project, the spray powders containing the deoxidizers such as carbon and boron are designed to develop in-situ deoxidizing effect to generate oxide-free molten metal droplets by air plasma spraying (APS) in ambient atmosphere for depositing dense coatings with sufficiently bonded splats. The thermodynamic and kinetic conditions for continuous deoxidization during whole in-flight molten droplets are presented. The experiments were conducted for NiCr, NiCrCu, CuNi coatings with boron as deoxidizer and for NiAl and FeAl coatings with dispersed diamond as deoxidizer. Results show that through powder design and spray condition optimization different spray particles can be heated to temperatures from 2100°C to 2500°C. It was found that the oxide contents in all coatings decreases with increasing spray distance, which indicates that deoxidizing effect of deoxidizer is maintained during whole spray particle in-flight. The examination shows that all APS coatings present dense microstructure. The electrochemical test reveals that the corrosion only occurs to coating surface and no trace of corrosive solution penetration into coating. As a result, the corrosion-resistant metal coatings can be realized by APS in ambient atmosphere through developing in-situ deoxidizing effect and subsequently oxide-free molten droplets with using deoxidizer-containing spray powders.

Abstract: The high-temperature and high-pressure oxygen-rich combustion gases often cause the high temperature gas conduit in rocket engine to suffer severe oxidation, resulting in a reduced service life. The present study deposited a dense NiAl coating on GH4202 superalloy using atmospheric plasma spraying and investigated its oxidation behavior in a high temperature and high-pressure oxygen atmosphere. The results showed that the NiAl coating presented excellent bonding with the superalloy substrate throughout tests. The uncoated GH4202 substrate was severely oxidized during high pressure oxygen atmosphere. It was found that only a continuous very thin Al₂O₃ oxide scale evolved on the NiAl coating surface and no oxidation was observed at the interface between the NiAl coating and GH4202 substrate. Moreover, no significant inner oxidation occurred to NiAl coating. Therefore, the present APS NiAl coating can provide effective protection of superalloy from oxidation at high pressure oxygen combustion gas atmosphere.

Abstract: Shot-peening (SP) is one of the severe surface plastic deformation (SSPD) processing techniques. Due to large plastic strain by the SP, the SP for metallic materials forms crystallographic texture on the peened surface. Since the crystallographic texture formed by the SP depends on the dislocation slip, it can be expected that this texture is affected by stacking fault energy (SFE) of the materials. However, effects of the SFE on the crystallographic texture formed on the peened surface by the SP is not clear. In this study, crystallographic textures of pure Al (higher SFE) and Al-10 mass%Mg alloy (lower SFE) formed by the SP are investigated. When the pure Al is SPed, {001}+{111} double fiber texture with the <001> and <111> directions parallel to the plane normal direction of the peened surface is obtained. On the other hand, in the case of Al-10 mass%Mg alloy with the SFE close to the pure Cu, {110} fiber texture is formed as well as the pure Cu. Therefore, it is found that the crystallographic texture formed by the SP is influenced by the SFE.

Abstract: Considering its very good mechanical properties, especially the high strength and toughness, and also its well-known case-hardening ability, the AMS 6265 (9310 VAR) low alloy steel is widely used in the aeronautical industry for manufacturing heavy-duty products and parts, like pinions, shafts, gears, piston pins, and other critical aircraft components. In this study, a surface modification treatment via shot peening method was applied to an initially case-hardened (quenched and carburized) AMS 6265 aircraft steel. In shot peening, the mechanical properties of the surface layer are improved, by generating plastically deformed micro-areas when exposing the metal surface to a stream of steel, glass, or ceramic shots. The initial case-hardened AMS 6265 alloy steel and all surface treated samples were structurally investigated by means of OM (optical microscopy), SEM-BSE (scanning electron microscopy – backscattered electrons imaging), and XRD (X-Ray diffraction) analysis, being also mechanically tested in tensile and microhardness tests. The influence of different shot peening parameters (shot size, peening pressure, and exposure time) on mechanical properties evolution and microstructural features, for the analyzed AMS 6265 alloy steel, was established in this present research.

Abstract: The effects of plating conditions on nickel (Ni) electroplated films composited with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (TEMPO)-oxidized CNFs (CNFs) were investigated. Plating experiments were performed by varying the amount of CNFs added to the Watt's bath, the current density, and the stirring speed. The plated film obtained at 3 g/L, 2.5 A/cm², and 300 rpm of them respectively, reached an average 483 HV of the surface hardness, which was the highest in this study. The surface hardness of the conventional Ni film without CNFs plated under the same conditions was an average of 239 HV, and the hardness improvement effect was more than twice as high. The hardness improvement effect due to dispersion enhancement tended to increase as more CNFs were more finely and densely composited into the Ni film, although different trends were observed when the current density was varied.