Cranfield University in 2023. As part of the course Anya will be undertaking a project that will investigate dissimilar welding between Super Duplex Stainless Steels and Inconel 625 clad F65 Carbon Steel.
This research will focus on understanding the mechanisms involved in failures due to corrosion, limitations of corrosion testing methods of dissimilar materials by means of ASTM G48A corrosion testing, and microstructural examinations which will be carried out on site at ASAMS, as well as SEM and EDX analysis which will be conducted at Cranfield University.
Anya explained “One of the main issues with testing these dissimilar materials is the corrosion testing of the Inconel clad F65 materials, due to the low corrosion resistance of the F65 steel.”
As part of the project’s preparation, ASAMS Machine Shop Manager, Alan Wright has been tasked with experimenting on methods to remove the bulk of the carbon steel, a difficult and intricate task due to the incomplete pipe sections that remained from previous testing. If successful, this removal process will allow for more isolated corrosion results that are more representative of the corrosion properties of the welded SDSS and Inconel.
Graham Barritte, Senior Lecturer in Welding Engineering and Metal Additive Manufacturing at Cranfield University and Anya’s project supervisor, showed great interest in the ability to carry out selective removal of materials to improve the validity of corrosion testing dissimilar materials due to the innovative machining technique thought up by Alan.
The project is expected to be completed in Spring 2025 and aims to provide a clear understanding into the root causes of corrosion failures in the dissimilar materials configuration.
