Moisture-induced embrittlement of iron aluminides. Final report
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States)
FeAl alloys {ge}24 at. %Al are H embrittled by both H2 gas and water vapor. This examines effect of H embrittlement by H2 gas and moisture-bearing air on tensile properties and fatigue crack growth resistance of two ordered FeAl intermetallic alloys (28, 36 at. % Al) and one disordered Fe-Al alloy (16 at. % Al). Susceptibility to embrittlement varies with both Al content and ordered state. Tensile ductility of disordered low Al alloy is not affected by moisture-bearing air, and fatigue crack growth resistance is affected only slightly by moisture. However, the higher Al alloys are severely embrittled by moisture-bearing air. Oxidation of Al with concurrent release of H2 is responsible for embrittlement of Fe3Al alloys. It is likely that the smaller amount of Al available for the oxidation reaction in the 16at. % alloy precludes such embrittling reactions. In contrast, H2 is found to be embrittling to all alloys in both cyclic and monotonic tests. Fractography shows that H2 preferentially attacks cleavage planes in these alloys. Inherent fatigue crack growth resistance in an inert environment of the low Al disordered alloy is found to be much lower than that for the high Al alloys. Fatigue crack growth rate in an embrittling environment can be expressed as superposed mechanical fatigue and corrosion-fatigue components. Fatigue crack growth tests in inert and embrittling environments are used to isolate corrosion fatigue of the crack growth rate in Fe-28at. %Al. The corrosion-fatigue component displays a frequency dependence: At lower frequencies, more time is available for penetration of H ahead of the crack tip. H transport in the Fe-Al alloys occurs primarily by dislocation-assisted transport, which allows for penetration depths of 10-100x the distance that can be achieved by bulk diffusion. An equation is developed for the corrosion-fatigue component of crack growth rate which includes stress intensity range and frequency dependence.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 93543
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/SUB-90-SF521/03; ON: DE95014290; CNN: Subcontract 19X-SF521C
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Apr 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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