Abstract
The precise control of nitrogen content in high nitrogen martensitic stainless steel is the guarantee of its excellent performance, and is a crucial issue for its manufacturing process using pressurized gas nitriding. In this paper, the effects of nitrogen pressure, temperature and alloy composition on nitrogen solubility and pressurized gas nitriding kinetics of Fe–Cr–Mo–C alloy melts were investigated. In order to correct the deviation of nitrogen solubility from Sieverts’ law under high nitrogen pressure, the first- and second-order interaction parameters of nitrogen on itself were obtained; accordingly, the nitrogen solubility model under pressure was established and well verified. The nitrogen solubility decreased with increasing temperature and C content, and increased with increasing Cr and Mo contents. The nitrogen mass transfer in liquid phase was the nitriding rate-determining step under different nitrogen pressures. The apparent mass transfer coefficient of nitrogen was approximately 0.0218 to 0.0230 cm·s−1, and showed a weak dependence with pressure. The apparent mass transfer coefficient of nitrogen increased significantly with the increase of temperature and electromagnetic stirring, and was rarely affected by the content of Cr, Mo and C. Considering the influence of pressure change on nitriding rate in pressurization stage, a novel kinetic model for gas nitriding under high pressure was established and exhibited effectiveness in practice.
