Intergranular corrosion environment

Hastelloy C-4 is almost totally immune to selective intergranular corrosion in weld-heat-affected zones with high temperature stabihty in the 650-I040 C (I200-I900 F) range Hastelloy C-22 has better overall corrosion resistance and versatihty than either C-4 or C-276 (in most environments). 

Stress below the proof stress does not normally affect corrosion rates. Cyclic stresses in combination with a corrosive environment (corrosion fatigue) can produce failure at below the ordinary fatigue limit. Alloys susceptible to intergranular attack may corrode faster when stressed (see Section 8.5). 

As with alloys of other metals, nickel alloys may suffer stress-corrosion cracking in certain corrosive environments, although the number of alloy environment combinations in which nickel alloys have been reported to undergo cracking is relatively small. In addition, intergranular attack due to grain boundary precipitates may be intensified by tensile stress in the metal in certain environments and develop into cracking. Table 4.28 lists the major circumstances in which stress corrosion or stress-assisted corrosion of nickel and its alloys have been recorded in service and also shows the preventive and remedial measures that have been adopted, usually with success, in each case. 

The embrittlement caused to aluminium alloys by pre-exposure to moist atmospheres or stress-corrosion environments is thought to be due to hydrogen in the atomic form. Intergranular bubbles of hydrogen, formed in association with certain precipitates, have been observed by HV and... 

Sensitisation susceptibility to intergranular attack in a corrosive environment resulting from heating a stainless steel at a temperature and time that results in precipitation of chromium carbides at grain boundaries. 

The austenitic stainless steels that are not stabilized or that are not of the extra-low-carbon types, when heated in the temperature range of 450 to 843°C (850 to 1,550°F), have chromium-rich compounds (chromium carbides) precipitated in the grain boundaries. This causes grain-boundary impoverishment of chromium and makes the affected metal susceptible to intergranular corrosion in many environments. Hot nitric acid is one environment which causes severe... 

Intergranular corrosion (weld decay) and stress corrosion cracking are problems associated with the use of stainless steels, and must be considered when selecting types suitable for use in a particular environment. Stress corrosion cracking in stainless steels can be caused by a few ppm of chloride ions (see Section 7.4.5). 

Nickel-base alloys under certain conditions of composition, thermal history, and environment are susceptible to intergranular corrosion. 

Because of the broad variation in composition and response to thermal treatment of the nickel-base alloys, it is not possible to generalize mechanisms responsible for developing susceptibility to intergranular corrosion. Therefore, the following discussion of the behavior of a Ni-Mo-Cr alloy is used to illustrate the complexity of an interrelationship between alloy composition, heat treatment, corrosion environment and corrosion rate. The alloy has the nominal composition in weight percent of 14.5 to 16.5 Cr, 15 to 17 Mo, 3 to 4.5 W, and 4 to 7 Fe with maximum limits on carbon and silicon. The alloys for which the corrosion data are shown in Fig. 7.59 contained 0.045 to 0.06 wt% carbon and 0.53 to 0.80 wt% silicon and were initially quenched from 1225 15 °C (2235 25 °F), which produced a dispersion of M6C type carbides (M = Mo, W, Si) in austenite (Ref 94). These carbides were not involved in the subsequent corrosion behavior or heat treatments. Heat... 

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