Effects of Cr on intergranular corrosion behavior of Fe-Cr-Ni alloys in simulated crevice environments in high temperature water

Soma, Yasutaka   ; Igarashi, Takahiro  

Since an acidic corrosive environment (crevice environment) is formed inside the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of stainless steel in high temperature water, it is important to understand the corrosion behavior in the crevice environment for the better understanding of crack growth behavior. In the previous study, the authors measured the electrical conductivity inside the crevice and obtained values of 380 S/cm and 1600 S/cm for the crevice with and without intergranular corrosion, respectively. In this study, we defined the crevice environment I (pH=4.41) and II (pH=3.13) corresponding the above conductivity values, and the corrosion behavior of Fe-xCr-20Ni (x=16.9, 19.8, 22.9, 24.3, 25.9) in each crevice environment was investigated. In the simulated crevice environment-I, the all alloys showed passive behavior, while in the environment-II, severe corrosion with intergranular cracking was observed for x = 16.9 and 19.8, and a thick oxide film was formed. On the other hand, above x=22.9, oxide film growth was suppressed and a clear passive region appeared on the polarization curve.