Effect of Nanosize Yittria and Tungsten Addition to Duplex Stainless Steel during High Energy Planetary Milling

Abstract

In this present investigation, elemental powders of duplex stainless steel composition (Fe-18Cr-13Ni) with 1 wt. % nano yittria and tungsten were milled separately in dual drive planetary mill (DDPM) for 10 h to fabricate yittria dispersed and tungsten dispersed duplex stainless steel powders. The milled powder samples were characterized by X-Ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study the size, morphology and phase evolution during milling. The gradual transformation from ferrite to austenite is evident from XRD spectra during milling. The crystallite size and lattice strain of yittria dispersed duplex stainless steel after 10 h milling were found to be 7 nm and 1.1% respectively. The crystallite size of tungsten dispersed duplex stainless steel was 5 nm. It has been observed from SEM analysis that particles size has been reduced from 40 to 5 μm in both cases. Annealing of 10 h milled powder was performed at 750°C for 1 h under argon atmosphere to study phase transformation in both yittria and tungsten dispersed duplex stainless steel. The XRD analysis of annealed stainless steel depicts the phase transformation from α-Fe to γ-Fe with the formation of oxides of Y,Fe and Cr. The differential scanning calorimetry analysis was conducted by heating the milled powder from room temperature to 1200°C under argon atmosphere to investigate the thermal analysis of both the stainless steel powders.