43. Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Plasma Nitrided XM-19 Stainless Steel

An experimental study of plasma nitriding and numerical simulation on XM-19 stainless steel is done in this work. PN conducted at various process temperatures ranging from 340 to 580 °C. The process parameters taken for PN were 4 h and in a ratio of N₂:H₂ = 1:4. The surface modification is done for the purpose of increasing the service life of the material. Numerical simulation is done on ABAQUS CAE and validated using the results of Guo et al. A numerical model is simulated for the different rates of compression (high and low) test using coupled temperature-displacement. The experimental work evaluated for microhardness and optical microscopy. Since the material found application to a highly corrosive environment, so a protective coating can be suggested for such material. This will be in the interest of both the research and industrial point of view which uses plasma nitriding on a large scale.