In-situ measurement of electrical conductivity of solution within crevice of stainless steel in high temperature and high purity water

Soma, Yasutaka   ; Komatsu, Atsushi ; Ueno, Fumiyoshi  

In-situ measurement of electrical conductivity of solution within crevice of SUS316L stainless steel in 288C water has been conducted with newly developed electrochemical sensor system. The sensor measures local electrical conductivity of crevice solution beneath the electrode () with electrochemical impedance method. The sensors were installed at different positions within tapered crevice of SUS316L stainless steel. The crevice specimen with the sensors were immerged into 288C, 8 MPa, pure oxygen saturated high purity water for 100 h. at a position with crevice gap of 59.3m was 8-11S/cm, least deviate from conductivity of 288C pure water (4.4S/cm) and no localized corrosion occurred. On the contrary, at a position with crevice gap of 4.4m increased with time and showed maximum value of 1600S/cm at 70 h. Localized corrosion occurred in the vicinity of this position. Thermodynamic equilibrium calculation showed of 1600S/cm being equivalent to pH of 3 to 3.7. It can be concluded that acidification occurred in tight crevice even under high purity bulk water and resulted in localized corrosion.