Corrosion Characteristics of Welding Zones Welded with 1.25Cr-0.5 Mo Filler Metal to Forged Steel for Piston Crown Material

Abstract

A heavy oil of low quality has been mainly used in the diesel engine of the merchant ship as the oil price has been significantly jumped for several years. Thus, a combustion chamber of the engine has been often exposed to severely corrosive environment more and more because temperature of the exhaust gas of the combustion chamber has been getting higher and higher with increasing of using the heavy oil of low quality. As a result, wear and corrosion of the engine parts such as exhaust valve, piston crown and cylinder head surrounded with combustion chamber are more serious compared to the other parts of the engine. Therefore, an optimum repair welding for these engine parts is very important to prolong their lifetime in a economical point of view. In this study, 1.25Cr-0.5Mo filler metal was welded with SMAW method in the forged steel which would be generally used with piston crown material. And the corrosion properties of weld metal, heat affected and base metal zones were investigated using electrochemical methods such as measurement of corrosion potential, anodic polarization curves, cyclic voltammogram and impedance etc. in 35% H2SO4 solution. The weld metal and base metal zones exhibited the highest and lowest values of hardness respectively. And, the corrosion resistance of the heat affected and weld metal zones was also increased than that of the base metal zone. Furthermore, it appeared that the corrosive products with red color and local corrosion like as a pitting corrosion were more frequently observed on the surface of the base metal zone compared to the heat affected and weld metal zones. Consequently, it is suggested that the mechanical and corrosion characteristics of the piston crown can be predominantly improved by repair welding method using the 1.25Cr-0.5Mo electrode.