The Influence of Specimen Thickness on the High Temperature Corrosion Behavior of CMSX-4 during Thermal-Cycling Exposure

CMSX-4 is a single-crystalline Ni-base superalloy designed to be used at very high temperatures and high mechanical loadings. Its excellent corrosion resistance is due to external alumina-scale formation, which however can become less protective under thermal-cycling conditions. The metallic substrate in combination with its superficial oxide scale has to be considered as a composite suffering high stresses. Factors like different coefficients of thermal expansion between oxide and substrate during temperature changes or growing stresses affect the integrity of the oxide scale. This must also be strongly influenced by the thickness of the oxide scale and the substrate as well as the ability to relief such stresses, e.g., by creep deformation. In order to quantify these effects, thin-walled specimens of different thickness (t = 100500 lm) were prepared. Discontinuous measurements of their mass changes were carried out under thermal-cycling conditions at a hot dwell temperature of 1100 C up to 300 thermal cycles. Thin-walled specimens revealed a much lower oxide-spallation rate compared to thick-walled specimens, while thinwalled specimens might show a premature depletion of scale-forming elements. In order to determine which of these competetive factor is more detrimental in terms of a component’s lifetime, the degradation by internal precipitation was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in combination with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Additionally, a recently developed statistical spallation model was applied to experimental data [D. Poquillon and D. Monceau, Oxidation of Metals, 59, 409–431 (2003)]. The model describes the overall mass change by oxide scale spallation during thermal cycling exposure and is a useful simulation tool for oxide scale spallation processes accounting for variations in the specimen geometry. The evolution of the net-mass change vs. the number of thermal cycles seems to be strongly dependent on the sample thickness

High Temperature Corrosion Behavior of Iron Aluminide Alloys and Coatings

A multi-year effort has been focused on optimizing the long-term oxidation performance of ingot-processed (IP) and oxide-dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe{sub 3}Al and iron aluminide-based coatings. Based on results from several composition iterations, a Hf-doped alloy (Fe-28Al-2Cr-0.05at.%Hf) has been developed with significantly better high temperature oxidation resistance than other iron aluminides. The scale adhesion is not significantly better; however, the {alpha}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} scale grows at a slower rate, approximately a factor of 10 less than undoped iron aluminide. The benefit of Hf is greatest at 1100-1200 C. Long-term oxidation resistance of commercially fabricated ODS Fe{sub 3}Al has been determined and compared to commercially available ODS FeCrAl. Scale spallation rates for ODS Fe{sub 3}Al are higher than for ODS FeCrAl. To complement studies of iron-aluminide weld-overlay coatings, carbon steel was coated with Fe-Al-Cr by thermal spraying. These specimens were then exposed in air at 900 and 1000 C and in air-1%SO{sub 2} at 800 C. Most likely due to an inadequate aluminum concentration in the coatings, continuous protective Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} could not be maintained and, consequently, the corrosion performance was significantly worse than what is normally observed for Fe{sub 3}Al

Paper Number GT2004-54254 SCREENING AND EVALUATION OF MATERIALS FOR MICROTURBINE RECUPERATORS

ABSTRACT The effects of stress, temperature and exposure to microturbine exhaust gases on the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of candidate materials for microturbine recuperators were investigated. Results are presented for 347 stainless steel metallic foils after 500-hr exposure to temperatures between 620°C and 760°C at a tensile stress of 50 MPa. It was found that the material experienced accelerated attack at the highest temperature and that the corrosion products consisted of mixed oxides of iron and chromium. It was also found that exposure at the highest temperatures resulted in significant decrease in both tensile strength and ductility. ORNL's microturbine recuperator test facility, where the exposures were carried out, is also described. INTRODUCTION The challenging performance targets for the next generation of microturbines include fuel-to-electricity efficiency of 40%, capital costs less than $500/kW, NOx emissions reduced to single parts per million, several years of operation between overhauls, life of 40,000 hours and fuel flexibility One of the critical components in low-compression ratio microturbines is the recuperator, which is responsible for a significant fraction of the overall efficiency of the microturbin

The unexpectedly short Holocene Humid Period in Northern Arabia

The early to middle Holocene Humid Period led to a greening of today's arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt. While this phase is well defined in North Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula, robust evidence from Northern Arabia is lacking. Here we fill this gap with unprecedented annually to sub-decadally resolved proxy data from Tayma, the only known varved lake sediments in Northern Arabia. Based on stable isotopes, micro-facies analyses and varve and radiocarbon dating, we distinguish five phases of lake development and show that the wet phase in Northern Arabia from 8800-7900 years BP is considerably shorter than the commonly defined Holocene Humid Period (similar to 11,000-5500 years BP). Moreover, we find a two century-long peak humidity at times when a centennial-scale dry anomaly around 8200 years BP interrupted the Holocene Humid Period in adjacent regions. The short humid phase possibly favoured Neolithic migrations into Northern Arabia representing a strong human response to environmental changes

Compressive Creep Performance and High Temperature Dimensional Stability of Conventional Silica Refractories

Furnace designers and refractory engineers recognize that optimized furnace superstructure design and refractory selection are needed as glass production furnaces are continually striving toward greater output and efficiencies. Harsher operating conditions test refractories to the limit, while changing production technology (such as the conversion to oxy-fuel from traditional air-fuel firing) can alter the way the materials perform. Refractories for both oxy- and air-fuel fired furnace superstructures are subjected to high temperatures during service that may cause them to excessively creep or subside if the refractory material is not creep resistant, or if it is subjected to high stress, or both. Furnace designers can ensure that superstructure structural integrity is maintained if the creep behavior of the refractory material is well understood and well represented by appropriate engineering creep models. Several issues limit the abilities of furnace designers to (1) choose the optimum refractory for their applications, (2) optimize the engineering design, or (3) predict the service mechanical integrity of their furnace superstructures. Published engineering creep data are essentially non-existent for almost all commercially available refractories used for glass furnace superstructures. The limited data that do exist are supplied by the various refractory suppliers. Unfortunately, these suppliers generally have different ways of conducting their mechanical testing and they also interpret and report their data differently; this makes it hard for furnace designers to draw fair comparisons between competing grades of candidate refractories. Furthermore, the refractory supplier's data are often not available in a form that can be readily used for furnace design and for the prediction and design of long-term structural integrity of furnace superstructures. With the aim of providing such comparable data, the US DOE's Office of Industrial Technology and its Advanced Industrial Materials program is sponsoring work to conduct creep testing and analysis on refractories of interest to the glass industry. An earlier stage of the project involved identifying which refractories to test and this is described elsewhere. Conventional silica was one such identified refractory category, and the present report describes the creep behavior of this class of refractories. To portray a more complete understanding of how these refractories perform at service temperatures, their fundamental corrosion resistances, dimensional stabilities, and microstructure were characterized as well

The Dependence of the Superconducting Transition Temperature of Organic Molecular Crystals on Intrinsically Non-Magnetic Disorder: a Signature of either Unconventional Superconductivity or Novel Local Magnetic Moment Formation

We give a theoretical analysis of published experimental studies of the effects of impurities and disorder on the superconducting transition temperature, T_c, of the organic molecular crystals kappa-ET_2X and beta-ET_2X (where ET is bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene and X is an anion eg I_3). The Abrikosov-Gorkov (AG) formula describes the suppression of T_c both by magnetic impurities in singlet superconductors, including s-wave superconductors and by non-magnetic impurities in a non-s-wave superconductor. We show that various sources of disorder lead to the suppression of T_c as described by the AG formula. This is confirmed by the excellent fit to the data, the fact that these materials are in the clean limit and the excellent agreement between the value of the interlayer hopping integral, t_perp, calculated from this fit and the value of t_perp found from angular-dependant magnetoresistance and quantum oscillation experiments. If the disorder is, as seems most likely, non-magnetic then the pairing state cannot be s-wave. We show that the cooling rate dependence of the magnetisation is inconsistent with paramagnetic impurities. Triplet pairing is ruled out by several experiments. If the disorder is non-magnetic then this implies that l>=2, in which case Occam's razor suggests that d-wave pairing is realised. Given the proximity of these materials to an antiferromagnetic Mott transition, it is possible that the disorder leads to the formation of local magnetic moments via some novel mechanism. Thus we conclude that either kappa-ET_2X and beta-ET_2X are d-wave superconductors or else they display a novel mechanism for the formation of localised moments. We suggest systematic experiments to differentiate between these scenarios.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

An overview of using small punch testing for mechanical characterization of MCrAlY bond coats

Considerable work has been carried out on overlay bond coats in the past several decades because of its excellent oxidation resistance and good adhesion between the top coat and superalloy substrate in the thermal barrier coating systems. Previous studies mainly focus on oxidation and diffusion behavior of these coatings. However, the mechanical behavior and the dominant fracture and deformation mechanisms of the overlay bond coats at different temperatures are still under investigation. Direct comparison between individual studies has not yet been achieved due to the fragmentary data on deposition processes, microstructure and, more apparently, the difficulty in accurately measuring the mechanical properties of thin coatings. One of the miniaturized specimen testing methods, small punch testing, appears to have the potential to provide such mechanical property measurements for thin coatings. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of using small punch testing to evaluate material properties and to summarize the available mechanical properties that include the ductile-to-brittle transition and creep of MCrAlY bond coat alloys, in an attempt to understand the mechanical behavior of MCrAlY coatings over a broad temperature range

Laser Interactions for the Synthesis and In Situ Diagnostics of Nanomaterials

Laser interactions have traditionall been at thec center of nanomaterials science, providing highly nonequilibrium growth conditions to enable the syn- thesis of novel new nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanowires with metastable phases. Simultaneously, lasers provide unique opportunities for the remote char- acterization of nanomaterial size, structure, and composition through tunable laser spectroscopy, scattering, and imaging. Pulsed lasers offer the opportunity, there- fore, to supply the required energy and excitation to both control and understand the growth processes of nanomaterials, providing valuable views of the typically nonequilibrium growth kinetics and intermediates involved. Here we illustrate the key challenges and progress in laser interactions for the synthesis and in situ diagnostics of nanomaterials through recent examples involving primarily carbon nanomaterials, including the pulsed growth of carbon nanotubes and graphene