Modelling the Boronizing Kinetics in AISI 316 Stainless Steel

Z. Nait Abdellaha, b, M. Keddamb and A. Eliasa aDépartement de Chimie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Mouloud Mammeri, 15000, Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria bLaboratoire de Technologie des Matériaux, Département de SDM, Faculté de Génie Mécanique, et Génie des Procédés, USTHB, B.P. N° 32, 16111, El-Alia, Bab-Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria

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This work deals with the simulation of the growth kinetics of the (FeB/Fe2B) bilayer and the diffusion zone on a substrate of AISI 316 stainless steel exposed to the powder-pack boriding process, in the temperature range of 1123-1273 K and a time duration ranging from 2 to 10 h. The developed diffusion model employs a set of mass balance equations at the three growth fronts: [(FeB/Fe2B), (FeB/-diffusion zone) and (diffusion zone/-substrate)] under certain assumptions, including the effect of the incubation times during the formation of iron borides and the diffusion zone. For this purpose, a computer code written in Matlab (version: 6.5) was created to simulate the boriding kinetics. A good concordance was obtained when comparing the experimental parabolic growth constants taken from the literature and the simulated values of the parabolic growth constants: (kFeB, k1 and k2). Moreover, the present model was also used to predict the thicknesses of the FeB and Fe2B layers and the diffusion zone thickness at various treatment times and boriding temperatures. The simulated values were in good agreement with the experimental borided layers thicknesses.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.122.588 PACS numbers: 81.15.Aa, 68.55.A-, 68.47.De, 68.55.jd