Model of growth kinetics of nitrided layer in the binary Fe–N system

Abstract

The mathematical description of the kinetics of a layer development is subjectal to a continuous evolution connected with a growing amount of empirical data. Commencing with attempts to describe selected stages of this process, attempts are made at present to mathematically represent phenomena occurring in a gas atmosphere, on the boundary of gas-metal, and in a nitrided material, together with a description of mutual dependencies between these phenomena. The model proposed in this paper, which describes the growth of the zones of a layer nitrided in conditions of a diffusion quasi-equilibrium, is a simple and convenient tool allowing for both the determination of nitrogen diffusion coefficients in the layer’s monophase zones and for forecasting the growth of the layer’s zones as a function of the time of the process and the nitrogen potential.