Nitriding of A316 Stainless Steel Pipe with Improvement of Corrosion Resistance

• Main Author: Yousof Kunju, Mohammad Fadzil
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: IRC 2016
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/16901/1/Fadzil%2016290-Dissertation%20Report.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/16901/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Nitriding process is a process that can enhance mechanical properties as well as the corrosion rate of steels. Hence due to this reason, nitriding had become one of the desirable method used for surface treatment in producing material with high quality of performance. The main purpose of this project is to enhance the corrosion resistance of austenitic stainless steel which used normally in oil and gas industry. This project is mostly concentrating on conducting the gas nitriding process and investigation is made to define the effect of nitriding process on the pipe in terms of corrosion resistance and microstructure. The high temperature gas nitriding process was subjected on A316L austenitic stainless steel at the temperature of 1200°C for 8 hours holding time. The samples were undergoing the metallography process to see and compare of the microstructure of treated and untreated AISI 316. The microstructures of the nitrided stainless steel were found they are twin formation which can be can divided into two patterns which is suspended twin and transgranular twin. Besides that, the samples undergo Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) test in order to check the nitrogen content after the stainless steel was nitrided. The nitrogen content is expressed in duration curve which shows that the diffusion of the nitrogen throughout the whole pipe after nitriding process are uniformed. Moreover, the immersion test was carried out to compare the corrosion rate before and after nitriding.