Thermodynamic and Kinetic Investigation of the Fe-Cr-Ni System Driven by Engineering Applications

Abstract: This work is a thermodynamic and kinetic study of the Fe-Cr-Ni system as the core of stainless steels. The Fe-Cr, Fe-Ni and Cr-Ni systems were studied intensively using both computational and experimental techniques, including CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams), phase field simulation, ab initio modeling, calorimetry, and atom probe tomography. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the complexity of the phase transformations in the Fe-Cr-Ni system via the integrated techniques. Due to the importance of the binary Fe-Cr system, it was fully reassessed using the CALPHAD technique by incorporating an updated description of the lattice stability for Fe down to zero kelvin. The improved thermodynamic description was later adopted in a phase field simulation for studying the spinodal decomposition in a series of Fe-Cr binary alloys. Using atom probe tomography and phase field simulation, a new approach to analyze the composition amplitude of the spinodal decomposition was proposed by constructing an amplitude density spectrum. The magnetic phase diagram of the Fe-Ni system was reconstructed according to the results from both ab initio calculations and reported experiments. Based on the Inden-Hillert-Jarl magnetic model, the thermodynamic reassessment of the Fe-Ni system demonstrated the importance of magnetism in thermodynamic and kinetic investigations. Following this, the current magnetic model adopted in the CALPHAD community was further improved. Case studies were performed showing the advantages of the improved magnetic model. Additionally, the phase equilibria of the Fe-Cr-Ni ternary were discussed briefly showing the need of thermodynamic and kinetic studies at low temperatures. The “low temperature CALPHAD” concept was proposed and elucidated in this work showing the importance of low temperature thermodynamics and kinetics for designing the new generation of stainless steels.