Problems of Simulation of Carbon Mass Transfer from Low-Pressure Saturating Atmosphere into Steel.

The boundary conditions for describing the mass transfer of carbon from a low-pressure oxygen-free atmosphere into steel under vacuum carburizing are analyzed. Experimental results and thermodynamic calculations are used to determine the numerical value of the activity of carbon in an environment of low-pressure acetylene. The calculated value of the carbon potential is used in the boundary condition of kind III in the form of a Langmuir expression applied to a mathematical model of vacuum carburizing based on numerical solution of the diffusion equation. The calculated concentration profiles are shown to describe adequately the experimental results. Different nonequilibrium processes of vacuum carburizing of steels are shown to have similarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]