Effect of Heat Treatment Conditions on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Long Term Serviced Fe25Cr-35Ni Alloy

Abstract

Abstract HP alloy Fe-25Cr-35Ni is widely used in petrochemical industry, because of its good corrosion and oxidation resistance at high temperature. As-cast microstructure of HP alloy consists of eutectic carbide in discontinuous network. After service in carburizing atmosphere at high temperature, the microstructure of serviced HP alloy, which consisted of carbide network that was thicker and coarser than as-cast specimens as well as irregular shape carbide, lost its tensile strength and fracture elongation properties. However, the hardness increased. The serviced HP alloys were heat treated in 12 conditions, which could be classified in four main categories. The first one was solutionized at three different temperatures — 1,373, 1,423 and 1,473 K. The second was solutionized at 1,373 K and aged at 1,073, 1,173 and 1,273 K. The third was solutionized at 1,423 K and aged at 1,073, 1,173 and 1,273 K. The last one was solutionized at 1,473 K and aged at 1,073, 1,173 and 1,273 K. The process time for solution was 21.6 ks and aging is 86.4 ks for all conditions. The result showed that the amount of Cr rich carbide vastly decreased after heat treatment in all conditions. The Vicker hardness values (HV) of all heat treated specimen decreased comparing to that of serviced alloy. In conclusion, heat treatment provided new microstructures with lower amount of carbide networks of serviced alloy which resulted in improvement of tensile strength and fracture elongation properties.