Oxidation Behaviour of FeCrAl-Alloys During Resistance and Furnace Heating

The behaviour of thin Fe-Cr-Al heating element strips was investigated with respect to the oxidation limited life times and geometrical changes during resistance and furnace heating. For this purpose, isothermal and cyclic oxidation tests varying in their total exposure time and cycle duration were performed in the temperature range 1050-1200 degrees C. Specimens subjected to rapid cyclic, resistance heating revealed shorter life times than calculated for specimens subjected to isothermal exposure. The life times were found to increase with increasing cycle duration and hence decreasing number of cycles for a given time at temperature. This life time decrease is related to an "hour glass" waviness of the specimens, which develops during prolonged thermal cycling. The development of this plastic deformation also occurred during furnace heated, thermal cycling tests. A two-step mechanism is introduced combining an oxidation kinetics related time to the onset of significant waviness with an enhancement of this waviness as a result of a ratcheting effect. The latter seems to strongly depend on the number of cycles and on the plastic deformation generated during each cycle rather than on the total time at temperature. The development of an "hour glass" waviness leads to an enhanced aluminium depletion due to an increase of the specimen surface area.Additional deformation phenomena like "hot tube" or "corkscrew" behaviour occur during the resistance heating tests. These are related to a temperature gradient that develops over the specimen width due to the poor aspect ratio of the specimens