This article is a general educational treatment of stress-corrosion cracking phenomena occasionally confronting design, operations, maintenance and research engineers. It reviews:

  1. Possible mechanisms: electrochemical dissolution, alloying, and hydrogen embrittlement of steels in solutions and liquid metals.

  2. Aspects of the electrochemical mechanism and the alternate mechanical-electrochemical mechanism.

  3. Stress corrosion cracking in ferrous alloys and proposed stress corrosion mechanism as they relate to these alloys.

  4. Effects of steel composition, mechanical properties, heat treatment, stress level, cold work, welding and corrosive environment on the susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking.

  5. Preventive measures: stress relieving, cathodic protection, alloy selection and modification of environment.

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