The Role of Phase Combinations on the Corrosion and Passivity Behaviour of High Strength Steels

Master thesis (2020)

Authors

C. Ozkan Mechanical Engineering

Contributors

Y. Gonzalez Garcia (OLD) MSE-6 (mentor)
A. Yilmaz (OLD) MSE-6 (mentor)
J. Sietsma Materials Science and Engineering (graduation committee member)
P. Taheri (OLD) MSE-6 (graduation committee member)
J. Zhou Biomaterials & Tissue Biomechanics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: © 2020 C. Ozkan
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Published Date

23-09-2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Literature reports a great deal of contradictory results concerning the effect of microstructure on the corrosion and passivity behaviour of advanced high strength steels. The difficulty in identifying the controlling cause of corrosion results from the inability of disentangling the coupled effects of individual microstructural features in a scientifically rigorous manner, thereby attributing the core behaviour to the wrong sources.
The aim of this thesis is to isolate and identify the effect of phases on the electrochemical response of high strength steels. To this end, a combined computational and experimental approach is taken. This work starts by analysing the connection between heat treatment, microstructure, and the resulting corrosion properties. After clarification of this interdependence, a finite element electrochemical model illuminates the corrosion behaviour of idealised two phase ferrite-martensite and ferrite-pearlite systems for different phase volume fraction combinations. The results from the simulations guide the microstructure creation for electrochemical experiments, where employed heat treatments result in ferrite-martensite and ferrite-pearlite microstructures with similar ferrite volume fractions. Potentiodynamic polarisation and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) experiments in 0.1M and 0.01M H2SO4 solutions; potentiostatic polarisation, EIS and Mott-Schottky analysis in 0.1M NaOH solutions reveal the corrosion response and passive film barrier properties of the microstructures. Results demonstrate a clear phase dependency for both active and passive conditions, and are further discussed in light of microstructural features of secondary martensite and pearlite phases.