Nickel alloys corrosion fatigue

Tips of platinum, platinum—nickel alloy, or iridium can be resistance-welded to spark-plug electrodes for improved reHabiHty and increased lifetime. These electrodes are exposed to extremely hostile environments involving spark erosion, high temperature corrosion, thermal shock, and thermal fatigue. 

Nickel is usually alloyed with elements including copper, chromium, molybdenum and then for strengthening and to improve corrosion resistance for specific applications. Nickel-copper alloys (and copper-nickel alloys see Section 53.5.4) are widely used for handling water. Pumps and valve bodies for fresh water, seawater and mildly acidic alkaline conditions are made from cast Ni-30% Cu type alloys. The wrought material is used for shafts and stems. In seawater contaminated with sulfide, these alloys are subject to pitting and corrosion fatigue. Ammonia contamination creates corrosion problems as for commercially pure nickel. 

Remarkably little has been published on corrosion fatigue crack propagation in copper and its alloys. In general little or no influence of marine environments has been observed in crack propagation experiments on manganese and nickel-aluminium bronzes although the frequencies employed were quite high (> 2.5 Hz) ... 

Mshana, J. S., Vosikovsky, O. and Sahoo, M., Corrosion fatigue behaviour of nickel-aluminium bronze alloys , Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly, 23, 7-15 (1984)... 

Fresh waters and particularly brackish waters have a greater effect on the corrosion fatigue of steels than on that of copper, with the latter being a more corrosion-resistant metal. Stainless steels and nickel or nickel-base alloys are also better than carbon steels. In general, resistance of a metal to corrosion fatigue is... 

In addition, this life prediction capability of unirradiated stainless steels gives a basis for expanding that capability to irradiated systems of nickel-base alloys [63,129] in BWRs and to carbon and low-alloys steels [105,130-131] all of which are subject to both stress corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue. 

For resistance against fatigue, Nimonic 75 has been used with Nimonic 80 and Nimonic 90. Nimonic 75 is an 80-20 nickel-chromium alloy stiffened with a small amount of titanium carbide. Nimonic 75 has excellent oxidation and corrosion resistance at elevated temperatures, a reasonable creep strength, and good fatigue resistance. In addition, it is easy to press, draw, and mold. As firing temperatures have increased in the newer gas turbine models, HA-188, a Cr, Ni-based alloy, has recently been employed in the latter section of some combustion liners for improved creep rupture strength. 

Valves must be made of fatigue-resistant carbon or alloy steel or 18-8 stainless steel, depending upon the service. The 18-8 stainless and 12-14 chrome steel is often used for corrosive and/or high temperature service. Any springs, as in the plate-type valves, are either carbon or nickel steel. Valve passages must be smooth, streamlined, and as large as possi-... 

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