Research Progress of Alumina-Forming Austenitic Stainless Steels: A Review

• Published in: Materials Vol. 15; no. 10; p. 3515
• Main Authors: Liu, Ling, Fan, Cuilin, Sun, Hongying, Chen, Fuxiao, Guo, Junqing, Huang, Tao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 13.05.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Alloying elements; Alloys; Alumina; Aluminum oxide; Austenitic stainless steels; Carbon; Chemical precipitation; Chromium oxides; Corrosion environments; Corrosion resistance; Corrosion resistant steels; Creep (materials); Design techniques; Genetic algorithms; Heat resistant steels; Heat treatment; High temperature; Mechanical properties; Microstructure; Nuclear power plants; Precipitates; Research parks; Review; Software; Stainless steel; precipitate; creep; AFA steel; corrosion resistance; mechanical properties
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma15103515

The development of Alumina-Forming Austenitic (AFA) stainless steel is reviewed in this paper. As a new type of heat-resistant steel, AFA steel forms an alumina protective scale instead of chromia in a corrosive environment. This work summarizes the types of developed AFA steels and introduces the methods of composition design. Various precipitates appear in the microstructure that directly determine the performance at high temperatures. It was found that alloy elements and the heat treatment process have an important influence on precipitates. In addition, the corrosion resistance of AFA steel in different corrosive environments is systematically analyzed, and the beneficial or harmful effects of different elements on the formation of alumina protective scale are discussed. In this paper, the short-term mechanical properties, creep properties and influencing factors of AFA steel are also analyzed. This work aims to summarize the research status on this subject, analyze the current research results, and explore future research directions.