Effects of age hardening on the mechanical properties of high silicon stainless steel

Abstract

High silicon stainless steel which are subjected to age hardening are mainly used as structural materials in power plants and chemical plants due its properties of high hardness and resistance against corrosion and wear. The present study explores the impact of high and low silicon content in stainless steel on the mechanical and corrosion properties and also the possibility to change the both low silicon and high silicon content stainless steel mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and wear resistances by Selecting the heat treatment conditions i.e., age hardening with aging time for 2–6 h at 300 °C after solution heat treatment at 900 °C for 1 h. Mechanical properties, wear and corrosion opposition are observed to be better in high silicon content stainless steel. The ultimate tensile strength (Mpa) obtained from result using UTM and hardness (HRB) result obtained from Rockwell hardness tester showed a peak at intermediate aging time than low and high aging time in both low and high silicon content stainless steel and The wear rate and corrosion rate of the both high and low silicon content stainless steel are minimum at least aging time and the result are analysed based on the microstructure developed on heat treatment for various durations.