Localized corrosion behavior of austenitic stainless steels under stress loading environment

Three elements (the material, the environment, and the stress) relate closely to the occurrence of the stress corrosion cracking (SCC). SCC can occur in austenitic stainless steels during operation under tensional stress in chloride environment. And it is important to evaluate the passivation behavior of the stainless steels that has high corrosion resistance by a passive film under the stress loading environment, because it is assumed that the stress have a effect in the passivation, breakdown of the passive film and repassivation. In this present work, the corrosion behavior of type 304 and 316 stainless steels in sodium chloride solutions using a constant strain is measured by the electrochemical measurement. On the basis of the results that the polarization curve measurement and the potentiostatic polarization curve measurement obtained, the localized corrosion sensitivity was increased in stress loading environment.