Quantification of Adherence of Thermal Oxide Scale on Low Carbon Steel Using Tensile Test

Abstract

In the present work, a tensile test method was used to investigate the adhesion of thermal oxide scale on low carbon steels oxidised in O2 containing 20 % H2O at 850 °C for up to 120 s. The mechanical adhesion energy was quantified, and a theoretical framework was developed to investigate the factors affecting the quantification i.e., the residual stress and Young’s modulus of the oxide scale. It was found that the quantified adhesion energies were in the range of 18–240 J m−2. When a higher value of the residual stress was used for the quantification, the quantified mechanical adhesion energy was decreased to a critical value and afterwards turned to be higher because of the increased strain energy accumulated in the oxide due to the stress in the direction perpendicular to the tensile loading. Furthermore, when a higher value of Young’s modulus of the oxide was used for the quantification, a higher quantified mechanical adhesion energy was obtained.