Microstructure and cavitation erosion behavior of sputtered NiCrAlTi coatings with and without N incorporations

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2020.02.072

Abstract

Abstract:

The NiCrAlTi coatings free of N and with N incorporations were deposited on austenitic stainless steel 304L by magnetron sputtering in Ar and in gas mixture of Ar and N₂, respectively. The N incorporated in the coatings existed as nitride precipitates (from ～3 vol.% to ～17 vol.%) after vacuum annealing. All the NiCrAlTi coatings, whatever free of N or with N incorporations, exhibited better resistance against cavitation erosion than ion plating TiN coating and the substrate 304 L in ultrasonic cavitation tests. The NiCrAlTi coating free of N incorporation presents superior cavitation erosion resistance. However, the nitrogen incorporation within the NiCrAlTi coatings showed negative effects on the resistance against cavitation erosion.

Key words: Cavitation erosion, NiCrAlTi(N) coating, Microstructure, Nitride precipitate

Zhengliang Liu, Shenglong Zhu, Mingli Shen, Yixuan Jia, Wen Wang, Fuhui Wang. Microstructure and cavitation erosion behavior of sputtered NiCrAlTi coatings with and without N incorporations[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2020, 54: 211-222.

Figures/Tables 16

Fig. 1. (a) Drawing of test specimen (unit: mm) and (b) characteristic stages of a cumulative erosion-time curve (A: incubation stage; B: acceleration stage; C: maximum rate stage; D: deceleration stage; E: terminal stage; I: nominal incubation time).

Fig. 2. (a) Cross-sectional morphology and (b) XRD pattern of as-annealed NiCrAlTi coating.

Fig. 3. (a, b) Cross-sectional morphologies, (c) XRD pattern and (d) size distribution of NSNP of as-annealed NiCrAlTi-1N coating.

Fig. 4. STEM elemental mappings of as-annealing NiCrAlTi-1N coating (the black arrow points to the precipitate enriched in Ti and N).

Fig. 5. (a, b) Cross-sectional morphologies, (c) XRD pattern and (d) size distribution of SMSNP of as-annealed NiCrAlTi-3N coating.

Fig. 6. STEM elemental mappings of as-annealing NiCrAlTi-3N coating (the white arrow points to the precipitate enriched in Al and N).

Fig. 7. (a, b) Cross-sectional morphologies, (c) XRD pattern and (d) size distribution of SMSNP of as-annealed NiCrAlTi-5N coating.

Fig. 8. (a, b) Cross-sectional morphologies, (c) XRD pattern and (d) size distribution of SMSNP of as-annealed NiCrAlTi-8N coating.

Fig. 9. Volume fraction of precipitates and nitrogen contents varying with N2 flux (the blue curve represents the volume fraction-N2 flux relationship and the black represents the nitrogen content-N2 flux relationship).

Fig. 10. Vickers microhardness of (a) five NiCrAlTi(N) coatings and three reference materials and (b) NiCrAlTi(N) coatings with or without N.

Fig. 11. (a) Overall cumulative volume loss of five NiCrAlTi(N) coatings and two reference materials as a function of cavitation erosion time and (b) enlarged curve of four NiCrAlTi(N) coatings drawn depending on Fig. 11(a).

Table 1 The nominal incubation time (NIT) and maximum erosion rate (MER) of SS 304L, TiN coating and five NiCrAlTi(N) coatings.

Material	NIT/h	MER/μm/h
304L stainless steel	2.6	1.14
TiN coating	2.2	1.06
NiCrAlTi-8N coating	3.3	0.69
NiCrAlTi-5N coating	7.2	0.77
NiCrAlTi-3N coating	8.5	0.47
NiCrAlTi-1N coating	12	0.36
N-free NiCrAlTi coating	12.5	0.20

Fig. 12. Eroded surface morphologies of two reference materials: (a) 304 stainless steel after erosion for 30 min; (b) TiN coating after erosion for 2 h.

Fig. 13. Surface morphologies of N-free coating eroded for (a, b) 2 h and (c, d) 20 h at (a, c) low and (b, d) high magnification.

Fig. 14. Eroded surface morphologies of (a, b) NiCrAlTi-1N, (c, d) NiCrAlTi-3N, (e, f) NiCrAlTi-5N and (g, h) NiCrAlTi-8N coatings at 2 h erosion.

Fig. 15. Eroded surface morphologies of (a, b) NiCrAlTi-1N, (c, d) NiCrAlTi-3N, (e, f) NiCrAlTi-5N and (g, h) NiCrAlTi-8N coatings at maximum rate state.

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