1996 Volume 45 Issue 4 Pages 226-234
This paper reviews the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of austenitic stainless steels type 304, type 316 and type 310, and ferritic stainless steel type 430, which has been investigated as functions of applied stress, potential and environmental factors (temperature, concentration, pH, anion species) in acidic solutions by using a constant load method. The constant load provides a corrosion elongation curve from which three parameters such as steady state elongation rate, time to failure and transition time are obtained. The results show that the steady state elongation rate in the SCC-dominated region becomes a useful parameter both for predicting time to failure at a time within 10 to 20% of time to failure and for the assessment of SCC susceptibility irrespective of the above factors. Furthermore a SCC mechanism is discussed in terms of corrosion current density at crack tips, the length of crack propagation and so on.
