Investigate on effects of Al and Cr alloying elements on the electrochemical behavior of Hadfield austenitic manganese steel

In this study, effects of aluminum and chromium alloying elements on the electrochemical behavior of Hadfield austenitic manganese steel was investigated. To do this, first casting 3 blocks of Hadfield steel that first block was without any addition, the second block was containing 1.73% Cr and the third block was containing 1.68% Al. Then annealing heat treatment was applied to prepared blocks at temperature 110 ºC for 2 hours. The electrochemical behaviors of samples were evaluated using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy methods in the 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. The results of electrochemical tests indicated that the sample containing aluminum; possess lower corrosion current, more noble corrosion potential and higher Corrosion resistance than the other samples. Because of aluminum addition, carbide particle volume and number of grain boundaries was reduced and this lead to galvanic cells formation inhibition.