Numerical Analysis of Diffusion-Controlled Internal Corrosion by the Cellular Automata Approach

Abstract

The cellular automata method offers a promising approach to describe diffusion and diffusion-controlled precipitation processes at high temperatures. During high temperature exposure, technical components like gas-turbine blades, furnaces, or exhaust systems, are operating in corrosive atmospheres. The resulting material-degradation processes are diffusion‐controlled, and corrosive species penetrate into the material leading to the formation of embrittling precipitates. Cellular automata (CA) represent distributed dynamical systems whose structure is particularly well suited to determine the temporal evolution of the system. In this study, it is shown that the model is able to consider diffusion, nucleation and growth aspects, interdiffusion between scales, and high diffusivity paths like grain boundaries. This has been demonstrated by applying CA to (i) nitrogen diffusion, (ii) internal intergranular oxidation of nickel-based alloy, and (iii) interdiffusion of a binary diffusion couple.