Electrochemical Decay of Plain Carbon Steels

Plain carbon steel, AISI-1045 is largely used in industrial and automobile engineering. Corrosion behavior of this steel from various microstructure i.e. ferrite-pearlite, bainite and martensite is important due to their wide applications. AISI-1045 steel was normalized, quenched and austempered from austenizing temperature of 850¿C. Austempering heat treatment was carried out in salt bath furnaces. Metallographic examination and Vickers hardness testing was performed to confirm the microstructure. Corrosion testing of AISI-1045 from microstructures ferrite-pearlite, bainite and martensite was carried out by using Gamry Potentiostat. Microstructure examination and hardening testing confirms the formation of all three microstructures. The Corrosion testing revealed that Quenched structure showed lowest corrosion rate and Normalized microstructure showed highest corrosion rate while austempered in between the quenched and normalized.