RECENT ADVANCES IN B2 IRON

ALUMINIDE ALLOYS
GROUP-2
15Y123 SENTHIL KRISHNAN
15Y126 S.SUGIRTHA
15Y208 P.LAKSHMIKRUTHIGA
15Y222 A.SUGANTHI
16Y501 SHANKAR
 ABSTRACT
This paper reviews the deformation, fracture
and alloy design of B2 iron aluminides based
on FeAl.
Five aluminides exist , although only Fe3Al and
FeAl are currently of practical interest.
 PROCESSING
Iron aluminides are readily prepared in small
quantities either by melting and casting or by
powder metallurgy processing.
Alloys can be melted by a variety of
techniques including
air induction melting (AIM)
vacuum induction melting(VIM)
vacuum arc melting(VAM).
 Environmental embrittlement
Grain boundary weakness
Thermal vacancies
Tensile ductility
Applications
 ENVIRONMENTAL EMBRITTLEMENT
Moisture-induced environmental embrittlement
is shown to be a leading cause of low tensile
ductility and brittle cleavage fracture of Fe rich
FeAl alloys at ambient temperatures.
FeAl alloys tested in air at room temperature
shows a cleavage fracture and 2.2% tensile
elongation.
The same alloy tested in conventional vacuum
had a ductility of about 8%.
 FeAl alloys tested in a dry oxygen environment
exhibited tensile ductility as high as 18%.
Iron aluminides fracture mainly by {100} type cleavage
when tested in moisture.
With increasing Al concentration from 35 to 50% , the
cleavage fracture gradually changed from {100} to
{111} type in vacuum.
These observations suggest that moisture-induced
embrittlement promotes {100} cleavage fracture in
iron- aluminium alloys with high Al concentration.
 GRAIN BOUNDARY WEAKNESS
With increasing Al concentration another factor
namely intrinsic grain boundary weakness becomes
important in decreasing the tensile ductility of FeAl
alloys .
Effect of boron additions on tensile properties of Fe at
40 % of Al .It is ineffective in improving the ductility.
Boron is known to segregate to the grain boundary of
FeAl and to supress intergranular fracture.
Addition of B increases ductility only modestly from 1.2
to 4.3%.
 Grain boundary fracture need to be supressed
and that is done (by testing the boron doped
alloy in oxygen), high ductilities approaching
17% are obtained.
As the ductility decreases, fracture mode
changes from transgranular to intergranular.
 Effect of test environment on room
temperature
ALLOY ENVIRONMENT DUCTILITY % YIELD FRACTURE
STRENGTH MODE
MPa
FeAl air 1.2 390 GBF
FeAl oxygen 3.2 402 GBF
FeAl+B air 4.3 391 TF
FeAl+B oxygen 16.8 392 TF

GBF-grain boundary fracture TF-transgranular fracture

 These results confirms that based on tests
conducted in oxygen, the grain boundaries in
FeAl becomes intrinsically weak as Al
concentration increases.
 THERMAL VACANCIES
Thermal vacancies are easy to introduce in
FeAl alloys containing greater than 38% Al by
fast cooling from heat treatment at elevated
temperatures.
As increase in quenched in thermal vacancies
from 0.013 to 0.62 reduces the tensile
ductility in vacuum from 7.4 to 2.9% at room
temperature.
TENSILE STRENGTH AND DUCTILITY
A binary Fe-36 at% of Al alloys display yield
strength of the order of 250 to 350 Mpa at room
temperature.
With tensile ductility
2% in air
17% in dry oxygen environment
FeAl alloys with 40 at % Al or more fail at room
temperature by intergranular fracture with little
tensile ductility .
 Ductility can be improved by
addition of B
Grain refinement.
 APPLICATIONS
The development potential of iron aluminides depends in
large part on their excellent resistance to
oxidizing,
carburizing and
sulfidizing environments.
They also possess
Low material costs
Conservation of strategic elements
Low density
Easy fabricability.
 Potential applications
Heating elements
Regenerator disks for gas turbines
Dies for superplastic forming
 Automatic exhaust manifolds, catalytic
convertors, piston valves and rings.
Oxidation and sulfidation resistant
components
Coatings
Components for coal energy conversion
systems
Food industry parts
 CONCLUSION
The combination of the excellent oxidation
and carburization/sulfidation resistance
coupled with low material density and good
mechanical properties at room and elevated
temperature has sparkled industrial interest in
FeAl alloys for number of applications.
References:
Environmental Effects on Engineered
Materials
- edited by Russell H. Jones
Microstructure and Properties of Materials,
Volume 2
- By James Chen-Min Li