Oxidation of silicon containing steel

Abstract

Steels containing sufficient concentrations of silicon tend to form a low melting temperature oxide called fayalite, which then penetrates both the steel and any other oxide to form a mechanical key. As a consequence, routine descaling operations fail to remove all traces of FeO that remain attached to the final product and oxidise to form a red oxide blemish on the surface. The formation of oxides was investigated both experimentally and by developing a new theory that permits the simultaneous formation of a variety of oxides that compete to establish the final oxide structure. The theory forms the basis for studying the evolution of oxide scales as a function of silicon concentration.