Microstructural stability of Fe-Cr-Al alloys at 450-550 degrees C

Journal article, 2015

Iron-Chromium-Aluminium (Fe-Cr-Al) alloys have been widely investigated as candidate materials for various nuclear applications. Albeit the excellent corrosion resistance, conventional Fe-Cr-Al alloys suffer from alpha-alpha' phase separation and embrittlement when subjected to temperatures up to 500 degrees C, due to their high Cr-content. Low-Cr Fe-Cr-Al alloys are anticipated to be embrittlement resistant and provide adequate oxidation properties, yet long-term aging experiments and simulations are lacking in literature. In this study, Fe-10Cr-(4-8)Al alloys and a Fe-21Cr-5Al were thermally aged in the temperature interval of 450-550 degrees C for times up to 10,000 h, and the microstructures were evaluated mainly using atom probe tomography. In addition, a Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) model of the Fe-Cr-Al system was developed. No phase separation was observed in the Fe-10Cr-(4-8)Al alloys, and the developed KMC model yielded results in good agreement with the experimental data.