abstract
- © 2018, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International. In the current study, the powder-pack boriding was applied to the AISI 12L14 steel in the temperature range 1123 K to 1273 K for an exposure time between 2 and 8 hours. The produced boride layer was composed of Fe 2 B with a sawtooth morphology. A diffusion model based on the integral method was applied to investigate the growth kinetics of Fe 2 B layers. As a main result, the boron diffusion coefficients in Fe 2 B were estimated by considering the principle of mass balance at the (Fe 2 B/substrate) interface with an inclusion of boride incubation times. The value of activation energy for boron diffusion in AISI 12L14 steel was estimated as 165 kJ mol ¿1 and compared with other values of activation energy found in the literature. An experimental validation of the present model was made by using four different boriding conditions. Furthermore, the Rockwell-C adhesion test was employed to assess the cohesion of boride layers to the base metal. The scratch and pin-on-disc tests were also carried out to analyze the effect of boriding on wear behavior of AISI 12L14 steel.