https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8411-490X
Immersion exposures of 304 stainless steel ground to a #4 finish were conducted in brines representative of the chemistry of sea salt aerosols at low (40%) and high (76%) relative humidity (RH). Low-RH-equivalent brines resulted in cross-hatched pits, whereas high-RH-equivalent brines produced ellipsoidal, faceted pits. Distinct surface microcracking was observed to be associated only with cross-hatched pits and appeared to correlate with a high concentration of dissolved carbonate species in low-RH-equivalent solutions while being absent in the high-RH-equivalent brines. Correlating these results to brine composition suggested that the concentrations of MgCl2 and dissolved carbonate species in the brines could, in the presence of machining-induced surface microstructure and residual stress, determine pit morphology in marine atmospheres, thereby potentially impacting stress corrosion cracking susceptibility and lifetime prediction.
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1 March 2023
Research Article|
August 01 2022
Correlation of Stainless Steel Pit Morphology to Humidity-Specific Sea Salt Brine Constituents
J. Srinivasan
J. Srinivasan
‡
*Fontana Corrosion Center, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210.
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J.S. Locke
J.S. Locke
*Fontana Corrosion Center, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210.
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E.J. Schindelholz
E.J. Schindelholz
‡
*Fontana Corrosion Center, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210.
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CORROSION (2023) 79 (3): 255–267.
