Analysis of Property Changes of Ductile Iron in Different Environments

Abstract

The problem of engineering materials failing in structures like bridges, pipelines, refinery and automobile equipments is becoming a source of concern to the people of the developing nations especially Nigerians. This sometimes might be attributed to the environments in which the materials are being used or stored and the source of the materials. There is a need therefore, to evaluate the effects of these environments on the final property, especially the mechanical properties of the materials. Based on the peculiarity of ductile iron (DI) having its application in most engineering works in different environments, the material was subjected to four different environments namely alkaline (NaOH), brackish (NaCl), air conditioning (A/C), and outside environment, coinciding with the environments of application. The material was later subjected to series of mechanical tests and the behavioural changes (especially the mechanical property) of the materials in these environments were monitored for the period. It was observed that the ductile iron placed outside had the highest elastic properties and hardness of 1341.72Hv while alkaline environment had the highest strength of 3321.75MPa. The alkaline environment gives the highest performance as it had a quality index of 4,038,837, followed by outside environment while salty environment had the least.