Degradation of Material in Different Industries

Review Paper on Degradation of industrial

Material
 

Vikas Kumar , Vinayak Kapoor

1* 2*

 
1* Chandigarh Group of Colleges, landran, Mohali India

 
2* Chandigarh Group of Colleges, landran, Mohali India

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

Degradation of Material in Different

Industries
Abstract
                        Industries are mainly dependent on the equipment they are using for
the manufacturing of the final products. Equipment are the backbone of the
manufacturing industries. These materials are made up of metals and polymers.
These industries encounter the problem of equipment breakdown due to many
reasons. The main reason and which is generally faced by the industries is the
degradation of the material. Industries are continuously trying and finding ways to
overcome this problem. The profit of any company depends on several factors.
One of the factors is the low maintenance cost of the equipment which companies
are using for the manufacturing process. Lower the maintenance cost more will be
the profit to the company.

Introduction
What is Degradation

Degradation is a process that intends to destroy or damage the quality of the

material. Degradation of each material depends on different environmental
conditions (temperature, moisture, etc.). Materials are constantly changing, both at
the molecular and macroscopic level. Molecularly, atomic structures are less stable
and continue to evolve in a more stable state; however, for most things this is a
slow process. The molecular changes may also occur due to the specific "strength"
(surface or border) and (volume) of the visible structures.

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

Various types of degradation

1. Creep
The deformation of material under the long exposure load and
elevated temperature for a long time. It is the slow process under
constant stress conditions and temperature. This type of degradation
of material highly depends on the level of temperature, stress and the
type of material used. Due to creep degradation, it causing damage to
the machines and is the main problem in rupture of mechanical
equipment. Creep depends on the composition of alloy used.
This problem is generally faced in boiler heaters and other components
which operate at high temperature, furnaces and reactor vessel
components and gas turbine blades. It can occur at low temperatures
corresponding to high stress levels.

In the condition of
low stress, the
cavities develop
preferentially at
the grain partition.
Grain partition can
be described as the
boundary of two
materials. As the
creeping process
carry out with
time, these cavities
start widening in
size and also
increases in
number. Due to
the incessant
nucleation of the
cavities, cracks begin to form in the material. The picture above shows the
creeping with respect to time. As the time passes, the cavities starts more widening
from micro size to macro size.

The size range of cavity is generally from 0.1 micron to 10 micron 2 .

For testing creep degradation period of a material, engineers use creep testing
techniques. In these testing techniques, a specimen of materials is collected and is

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

exposed to constant stress under constant temperature. Then strain is measured over the
time period.

Creep testing consists of three stages3

These three stages are primary, secondary, tertiary. The primary stage is the beginning of the
testing phase. In this stage the creep is not for long time. In the secondary stage creep becomes
stabile. And in the tertiary stage, material starts to voiding and rupture condition will occur. This
is the last stage of the creeping process

2. Embrittlement
Embrittlement is general phenomenon in which metal loses its ability to deform or
can be called as loss of ductility4. Loss of ductility changes some properties of the metal
such as hardness and strength. There are several factors due to which this phenomenon
occurs. They are as follows
 Due to temperature variation.
 Due to the changes in the internal structure or in crystalline structure.
 Due to exposure of material to corrosive environment.
 Due to extreme load or extension.
Types of Embrittlement
 Hydrogen embrittlement
Hydrogen is the most
common element found in
the world and is liberated
from various chemical
processes depending upon
composition. Another
name for Hydrogen
Embrittlement (HE) is
Hydrogen Associated
Cracking (HAC). Materials
that are most vulnerable
include high-strength
steels, titanium and
aluminum alloys and
electrolytic tough pitch
copper.
Hydrogen embrittlement

Problems occur due to Hydrogen Embrittlement are as follows5:

 Internal cracking or blistering.

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

This problem can be solved using metal with low impurities like sulfur and phosphorous,
and by applying protective coating layer over the metal surface.
 Loss of ductility
By using material of low hardness and using the best heat treatment process to remove
absorbed hydrogen from the metal surface.
 High temperature hydrogen attack.
Selection of material plays an important role in preventing High temperature hydrogen
attack (HTHA).

Three conditions are required for Hydrogen Embrittlement:

1. Hydrogen presence and diffusion

2. Material susceptibility
3. Stress

 Liquid-metal Embrittlement
Liquid Metal Embrittlement can be defined as the loss of tensile ductility of the
metal when they are tested under the presence of some specific liquified metal 6.
The Liquid metal embrittlement can occur due to the low corelative solubility
between two metals and also due to the intermolecular formation of compound
capability.

Prevention Techniques:
(1) liquid metal embrittlement detection using acoustic emission technique.
(2) Removing mercury from equipment using chemical processes.
(3) By surface treatment method.

Embrittlement Temperature

Metals Temperature (0C)

Zinc −129

Steel −73

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

3. Environment-assisted cracking
Environment-assisted cracking refers to the slow cracking process9 (i.e. Corrosion) which
is caused by some specific conditions mentioned below: -
1.) Stress Corrosion Cracking (simply known as SCC).
2.) Corrosion Fatigue.

1) Stress Corrosion Cracking: - Stress Corrosion Cracking is the phenomenon

which takes place due to the tensile stress (i.e. stress caused by load) and
corrosive environment. It leads to the growth of cracks in the metals in the
corrosive environment. It causes the failure of those ductile metals which are
made in a way to survive against the tensile stress. As the load is increased on
those cracked metals, they are so weak that they cannot handle such a load and
the cracks in them keep on getting wider and wider. As the temperature
increases, this process keeps on proceeding at a larger rate. In deserts,
corrosion causes the failure of most of the metals because of the high
temperature of those areas in the daytime. When the stress of the load is large
on the metal, it gets an out of hand situation to prevent this from stress
corrosion cracking. Firstly, the crack is formed due to the corrosive
environment and then keeps growing larger and larger when the load or stress
is very high on that particular metal in that environment.

2) Corrosion Fatigue
Fatigue is one of the causes of structural failure of many materials in the
industry. The cause of fatigue is cyclic loading which causes the structural
damage to the internal molecular interactions7. If once, Fatigue crack is
introduced to the material then it keeps widening with the next loading and
increases until the critical state of fatigue.
Metal fatigue is generally used term for the failure of metal components due to
fatigue. The initialization of the metal fatigue occurs due to the nuclear cracks
in the metal structure. As the stress rises due to the cyclic loading over the metal,
the cracks begin to widening which results in fatigue failure after some period of
time.
Conditions for the Fatigue growth:

 Stress id directly proportional to the rate of growth of crack.

 Environment conditions like moisture increase increases the cracking growth.

The damage to the metal is irreversible. More the stress, less will be the life of metal or
material. Microscopic and macroscopic structures play an important role in the life cycle
of material. The space between the crystalline structure of the metal which allows the
metal to contract is the place where cracking begins.

Identification of fatigue failures8

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

This type of material degradation occurs due to stress increasing or loading cycles which
generates the crack before failure. This crack progresses in the smooth manner in time
period with respect to the loading cycles.

Polymer Degradation
Polymers10 are the major part of any kind of production in our industries. Polyalkenes,
polyurethanes, acrylics, polycarbonates and silicones are the major polymers mostly used
for production of day to day life products and for some heavy-duty equipment. Polymers are
the simple compound molecules which are chained together to form a long chain and called
as polymers. Polymer is a macromolecule which is formed by the small molecules of same
or different type.

Degradation of polymer11

The change in properties of polymer such as tensile strength, shape and color under the
effect of environmental conditions and factors such as moisture, heat, sunlight, acids and
under the effect of alkali metals etc. is considered as polymer degradation. Molecular
disintegration and cracking are undesirable changes which leads to degradation of polymer
material.

Types of Polymer Degradation: -

1) Photoinduced Degradation

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

Photodegradation is the deterioration of polymer by the effect of light rays refers to sunlight.
A chemical reaction initiates which dissociates the molecules of polymer. Photoinduced
degradation is done by the visible light only. Photons with sufficient energy can affect the
chemical and molecular structure of the polymeric material. UV rays, gamma rays and X-
rays are responsible for the disintegration of the internal structure of polymers.
Photodegradation depends on wavelength of light, shorter the wavelength more will be the
damage.

12
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/EVA-degradation-reaction-with-the-formation-of-
lactone-and-methane-50_fig4_318083403

2) Thermal Degradation
3) Chemical Degradation
4) Biological degradation

State your topic's

Reveal your thesis to the reader

Conclusions

References

Author,title,journal name,volume,year 

1. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1516-14392004000100015&script=sci_arttext
2. https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/faq-what-is-creep-damage-and-how-is-
it-detected

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 Degradation of Material in Different Industries

3. https://wmtr.com/en.whatisacreepTest.html
4. https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/embrittlement
5. http://www.heat-treat-doctor.com/documents/Hydrogen%20Embrittlement.pdf
6. https://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/731/liquid-metal-embrittlement-lme
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(material)#Stages_of_fatigue
8. https://marineengineeringonline.com/tag/explain-how-a-fatigue-failure-is-identified/
9. https://www.nace.org/resources/general-resources/corrosion-basics/group-3/environmental-
cracking
10. https://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org/polymers/polymers-an-overview.html
11. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080548197000212

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