Simulating the Growth of Dual-Phase Boride Layer on AISI M2 Steel by Two Kinetic Approaches

Two kinetic approaches (integral method and Dybkov method) have been applied for simulating the boriding kinetics of AISI M2 steel in the range of 1173 to 1323 K, by including the effect of incubation periods. For the integral method, a peculiar solution of the resulting system of differential algebraic equations (DAE) has been employed for assessing the diffusivities of boron in FeB and Fe2B. The boron activation energies in FeB and Fe2B have been deduced from both approaches and compared with the data taken from the literature. Furthermore, to experimentally extend the validity of both approaches, four additional boriding conditions obtained on the boronized samples at 1173, 1223, 1273 and 1323 K for 10 h were then used. The predicted boride layers’ thicknesses were confronted to the experimental values. Consequently, a satisfactory concordance was obtained when comparing the simulated layers’ thicknesses to the experimental values derived from the literature.