The anticipated increase in the use of crude fuel oils containing vanadium in high temperature installations has initiated further experimentation concerning the nature of accelerated oxidation caused by the action of certain oxides of the metals V, Mo, and W on heat resistant alloys at elevated temperatures.
The effect of additions of various refractory metal oxides on the physical and corrosive nature of a vanadium oil ash has been investigated to determine the possibility of oxide additives as a method of preventing accelerated oxidation. Oxidation tests were also conducted to determine the effect of some of the major constituents of oil ashes on accelerated oxidation.
Since a solution to the problem of accelerated oxidation may be best accomplished through a knowledge of the oxidation mechanism, chemical analysis and X-ray diffraction studies were conducted on the oxide scale formed during the accelerated oxidation of Type 347 stainless steel in contact with liquid V2O5. The metal-oxide interface was found to have the highest level of oxidation and the highest vanadium concentration. Also at this interface, X-ray diffraction evidence was found for a vanadium-oxygen-metal compound having the formula MVO4.
