Environmental embrittlement characteristics of the AlFe and AlCuFe intermetallic systems

摘要

In this work, environmental factors as a function of the alloy compositions were evaluated in order to characterize the embrittlement process in AlFe and AlFeCu intermetallic alloys. This research was carried out subjecting different alloys to different atmospheric conditions such as: water vapor hydrogen and oxygen atmospheres. Through these experiments it has been possible to evaluate the characteristics of the embrittlement process in the AlFe and AlFeCu systems. The experimental results show that the embrittlement phenomenon tends to decrease with the increment of the crystallographic phases. Also, the environmental embrittlement time (EET) increased as the aluminum solubility in different phases is increased. The experimental results show that the water vapor has a strong influence on the intermetallic deterioration and decreasing the embrittlement time. All the experiments demonstrate that the time of embrittlement under water vapor + O-2 were shorter than under the other atmospheric conditions.