In order to develop Steel Ceramic Composites able to withstand the contact with liquid aluminum and aluminum alloys the understanding of the interaction mechanisms within the heterogenous metal melt/solid material system is indispensable. The crucial and most sophisticated aspect of the composite corrosion process is the corrosion initiation caused by the contact with the liquid metal. This urged comprehensive investigations of all factors contributing to the corrosion, including the electrochemical as well as chemical driving forces. For the analysis of the initial corrosion stage novel DSC-aided corrosion tests, high temperature electrochemical investigations and wettability measurements were developed and adapted.
The evaluation of composites applicability lead to in-depth analysis of their structures, its transformation during the surface treatment as well as its degradation after the corrosion tests. The determination of phases resistant to molten aluminum alloy and necessity of understanding of corrosion mechanisms between the materials resulted in very comprehensive series of experiments, including evaluation of the pre-oxidation process on the structural transformation of the composites as well as numerous in-depth short- and long-term corrosion tests. All of presented investigations have been extensively supported by various thermal and electrochemical analyses, numerous CLSM and SEM micrographs with EDS/EBSD analyses and comprehensive phase analyses using X-Ray Diffraction.