Effect of Specimen Thickness on the Oxidation Rate of High Chromium Ferritic Steels: The Significance of Intrinsic Alloy Creep Strength

Previous studies revealed that initial sample thickness affects the growth rate of oxide scales formed during 800 or 900 A degrees C air exposure. The effect is partially related to differences in depletion of minor alloying additions such as Mn, Ti, La in thick and thin specimens. However, it has previously been proposed that the specimen thickness dependence is partially governed by differences in creep strength of thick and thin substrates. To investigate this hypothesis, discontinuous air oxidation experiments were carried out with the Laves phase strengthened ferritic steel Crofer 22 H at 800 A degrees C. Comparing the data for solution annealed and pre-aged (500 h, 900 A degrees C) materials it could be shown that intrinsic creep strength of the alloy substantially affects oxidation rates. The observations can qualitatively be explained by assuming the relaxation of oxide growth stresses by plastic deformation of the metallic substrate to be an important parameter affecting the kinetics of oxide scale growth.