Pre-Stressed Sub-Surface Contribution on Bulk Diffusion in Metallic Solids

TL;DR

This paper investigates how pre-stressed sub-surface conditions influence bulk oxygen diffusion in metals, using numerical simulations to explore how mechanical strains can delay oxidation-related degradation.

Contribution

It introduces a FEM simulation approach to analyze the impact of subsurface stress fields on oxygen diffusion during metal oxidation, highlighting potential for improved material durability.

Findings

Stress fields can significantly alter oxygen diffusion rates.

Mechanical pre-stressing may delay oxidation-induced degradation.

Simulation results suggest surface treatments improve material longevity.

Abstract

Our recent modelling works and corresponding numerical simulations realized to describe the UO2 oxidation processes confirm the theory showing that an applied mechanical strain can strongly affect the local oxygen diffusion in a stressed solid. This result allows us to assume that stress field, previously applied at the surface of a metallic sample on several microns, will delay the degradation during its oxidation. Considering this hypothesis, we implemented a FEM simulation code developed in our laboratory to numerically investigate some different stress fields applied on a sample sub-surface, that might significantly modify the volume diffusion of oxygen during the oxidation process. The results of our simulations are presented and discussed from the perspective to study the consequences of a surface mechanical treatment on the durability of a metallic material.