Electrochemical behavior of Fe-Cr-Ni alloys in simulated crevice condition in high temperature water

Soma, Yasutaka   ; Kato, Chiaki   

It is important to understand the electrochemical properties of stainless steel in environment created within crevice of stainless steel in high temperature water (crevice environment). This is because acidification and concentration of impurity ions occur in the crevice environment and this is common inside the stress corrosion crack. In this study, we reproduced the crevice environment in bulk scale and investigated mainly the effect of Cr concentration on the electrochemical properties of Fe-Cr-Ni alloys. Polarization curves of Fe-20Ni-xCr (x=16.4, 23, 26) were measured in water with a temperature of 288C, a Cl concentration of 210 mol/dm, a pH value of about 4.5, and a dissolved hydrogen concentration of 10 ppb. The peak currents of active dissolution (at -400 mV) and passive current density (at -50 mV) for specimens with Cr concentrations x = 16.4, 23, and 26% were approximately 13.8, 15.9, 10.0 Acm, and 18.4, 8.5, 8.5 Acm, respectively. Although the current values of x=26 were slightly lower in both cases, it was concluded that there was no clear dependence of the polarization curve on Cr concentration in this environment.