The high temperature degradation of ferritic stainless steel in solid carbon atmospheres

Stainless steel is widely used for many components and parts in coal-fired thermal power plants. AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel (FSS) is one common grade to combat the degradation at high temperatures in coal combustion atmospheres containing flue gas, coal ash, and soot (impure solid carbon particles). However, the effect of the solid carbon particles on the degradation of FSS needs to be clarified. Graphite powder was used to simulate solid carbon atmospheres for investigating the degradation of AISI 430 at high temperatures of 1150℃ to 1350℃ in coal-fired boilers. After the carbothermic reduction, the mass gain of a pre-oxidized sample at 750℃ was approximately 0.0793 mg⸳cm-2 and increased when increasing the reduction temperature. The peak of Fe2O3 and Cr7C3 were detected by X˗ray diffraction (XRD) after the oxidation and reduction test, respectively. Besides, the degree of sensitivity (%DoS) of the samples was measured by double loop electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation (DL-EPR) technique and increased around 30 times after heating the pre-oxidized sample to 1150℃.