Donovan Pitts-Reed

Mentor: Dr. Ishraq Shabib
Research: Electrochemical Performance of Additively Manufactured and Wrought 8620 Steel in Sodium Chloride and Acetic Acid Solution

Corrosion is a process that causes toxicity and when consumed it can lead to harmful effects. The wrought and additively manufactured 8620 steels are two different materials and in this project these two materials are tested to see whether the additively manufactured material, i.e., the 3D printed 8620, or the wrought 8620 metal exhibit higher corrosion resistance in a corrosive environment. The electrochemical performance of these metals were tested under solutions with different consecrations of sodium chloride and acetic acid. Each of the metals showed properties of corrosion resistance that can be very helpful for industries specifically places that experience high corrosion rates. The wrought 8620 and additive manufactured 8620 metal both demonstrated some resistance to corrosion during the experiment, however, the electrochemical analyses revealed that the wrought 8620 metal had better corrosion resistance than the 3D 8620 metal in the tested solutions. The observed response can be attributed to the inherent defects of 3D printed steels formed during the additive manufacturing process.