Behaviour of Hydrogen in Industrial Scale Steel Melts

The behaviour of hydrogen during controlled industrial scale secondary steel making process has been examined in a variety of low alloy steels, sensitive to hydrogen flaking. The study examines the role played by the moisture in input raw materials such as the ferro-alloys, type of carbon additive and fluxes in enhancing the hydrogen content in the ladle furnace. Post alloying, the influence of vacuum degassing parameters such as the vacuum level, vacuum holding time, Ar flow rate, type of porous plug used, slag chemistry and the steel grade was examined. The vacuum degassing process was analysed using a kinetic model, which could justify the trends seen in the vacuum level, holding time and Ar gas flow rate. Finally, the hydrogen pick-up post vacuum degassing through slag cover and the casting tundish was found to be influenced by parameters such as the quality of the tundish spray mass, and casting sequence. The influence of steel grade in hydrogen removal was also examined.     

Corrosion resistant Ti alloy for sulphuric acid medium: Suitability of Ti–Mo alloys

The corrosion resistance of Ti–Mo (5, 10, 15 and 25 wt% molybdenum) alloys in 5–25% sulphuric acid was evaluated. The Ti–Mo alloys offered a better corrosion resistance than commercially pure titanium (CP‐Ti). The higher impedance values, higher phase angle maximum, ability to reach the phase angle maximum at relatively lower frequencies, ability to exhibit a constant phase angle maximum over a wider range of frequencies, higher phase angle values at 0.01 Hz, have confirmed the formation of a stable passive oxide film on Ti–Mo alloys. The study recommends the use of Ti–Mo alloys, particularly Ti–25Mo alloy, as a suitable material of construction for sulphuric acid medium.     

Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled by neem oil blended with alcohols

Fuel crisis and environmental concerns have led researchers to look for alternative fuels of bio-origin sources such as vegetable oils, which can be produced from forests and oil-bearing biomass materials. Vegetable oils have energy content comparable to that of diesel fuel. Straight vegetable oils posed several operational problems and durability problems when subjected to long-term usage in compression ignition engine. These problems are attributed to higher viscosity and lower volatility. In this study, performance and emission parameters of a diesel engine operating on neem oil and its blends of 5, 10, 15 and 20?vol% with ethanol, 1-propanol, 1-butanol and 1-pentanol are evaluated and compared with diesel operation. The results indicate that the brake thermal efficiency is improved with the use of neem oil–alcohol blends with respect to those of neat neem oil. The smoke intensity, CO and HC emissions with neem oil–alcohol blends are observed to be lower with respect to those of neat neem oil at higher loads. The NO _x emission is very slightly reduced with the use of neem oil–alcohol blends except for the neem oil–ethanol blend compared with that of neat neem oil.     

Numerical model of natural convective heat transfer within a solar dryer using an indirect double pass collector

The double pass collector is one of the most efficient means of drying crops because heating of air takes place from both sides of the absorber plate. To investigate the performance, a double pass natural convection solar dryer was fabricated for experimentation; the results were collected and used to develop a validated numerical model using MATLAB. The experiments were undertaken during February–March 2016 in Salem Tamil Nadu, India over 10 sunshine days. The simulation was carried using the developed model under the measured ambient conditions. The results showed that the mathematical model could predict the performance of the double pass collector for a particular ambient condition to an uncertainty of ±5%. This model could be used to optimise the performance of the collector so that we can predict and investigate the actual performance of the collector with the various optimised designs before fabricating the dryer.     

Effect of Heat Input on Microstructural Changes and Corrosion Behavior of Commercially Pure Titanium Welds in Nitric Acid Medium

Commercially pure titanium (Ti) has been selected for the fabrication of dissolver for the proposed fast reactor fuel reprocessing plant at Kalpakkam, India. In the present investigation, microstructural changes and corrosion behavior of tungsten inert gas (TIG) welds of Ti grade-1 and grade-2 with different heat inputs were carried out. A wider heat affected zone was observed with higher heat inputs and coarse grains were observed from base metal toward the weld zone with increasing heat input. Fine and more equiaxed prior β grains were observed at lower heat input and the grain size increased toward fusion zone. The results indicated that Ti grade-1 and grade-2 with different heat inputs and different microstructures were insensitive to corrosion in liquid, vapor, and condensate phases of 11.5 M nitric acid tested up to 240 h. The corrosion rate in boiling liquid phase (0.60-0.76 mm/year) was higher than that in vapor (0.012-0.039 mm/year) and condensate phases (0.04-0.12 mm/year) of nitric acid for Ti grade-1 and grade-2, as well as for base metal for all heat inputs. Potentiodynamic polarization experiment carried out at room temperature indicated higher current densities and better passivation in 11.5 M nitric acid. SEM examination of Ti grade-1 welds for all heat inputs exposed to liquid phase after 240 h showed corrosion attack on the surface, exposing Widmanstatten microstructure containing acicular alpha. The continuous dissolution of the liquid-exposed samples was attributed to the heterogeneous microstructure and non-protective passive film formation.     

Solubility of Nitrogen in Superaustenitic Stainless Steels During Air Induction Melting

The amount of nitrogen contained in super austenitic stainless steels (SASS) influences their properties significantly. The effect of maximum amount of nitrogen in the highly alloyed Cr and Ni SASS containing further additions of Mo and Mn is studied. The calculated nitrogen contents of the experimental alloys are compared with the actual nitrogen contents obtained in the alloys produced using induction melting furnace. The actual nitrogen content of the alloys is always lower than the calculated value, and this discrepancy is due to the presence of positive interaction parameters of Ni, Cu, and Si in the alloy. However, the yield of nitrogen in the liquid SASS is improved significantly with additions of Mn and Mo contents. The construction of multicomponent phase diagrams for SASS is demonstrated using Thermo-Calc software. SASS containing more nitrogen exhibited a very high strength without loss of toughness.