Comparison of surface fractal dimensions of chromizing coating and P110 steel for corrosion resistance estimation

In the field of corrosion research, mass gain/loss, electrochemical tests and comparing the surface elemental distributions, phase constitutions as well as surface morphologies before and after corrosion are extensively applied to investigate the corrosion behavior or estimate the corrosion resistance of materials that operated in various environments. Most of the above methods are problem oriented, complex and longer-period time-consuming. However from an object oriented point of view, the corroded surfaces of materials often have self-similar characterization: fractal property which can be employed to efficiently achieve damaged surface analysis. The present work describes a strategy of comparison of the surface fractal dimensions for corrosion resistance estimation: chromizing coating was synthesized on P110 steel surface to improve its performance via pack cementation. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to investigate the surface morphologies of the original and corroded samples. Surface fractal dimensions of the detected samples were calculated by binary images related to SEM images of surface morphologies with box counting algorithm method. The results showed that both surface morphologies and surface fractal dimensions of P110 steel varied greatly before and after corrosion test, but the chromizing coating changed slightly. The chromizing coating indicated better corrosion resistance than P110 steel. Comparison of surface fractal dimensions of original and corroded samples can rapidly and exactly realize the estimation of corrosion resistance.