Stress corrosion cracking surface

Figure 5-7. Typical crystallographic features of FCC stress corrosion crack surfaces (Magnin, 1996).

Pitting corrosion may occur generaHy over an entire aHoy surface or be localized in a specific area. The latter is the more serious circumstance. Such attack occurs usuaHy at surfaces on which incomplete protective films exist or at external surface contaminants such as dirt. PotentiaHy serious types of corrosion that have clearly defined causes include stress—corrosion cracking, deaHoying, and corrosion fatigue (27—34). 

Figure 6.1 Stress-corrosion cracking of a brass condenser tube caused by ammonia from decomposing slime masses lodged on internal surfaces.

The surface from which the cracks originate may not be apparent without a microstructural examination. Stress-corrosion cracks invariably produce brittle (thick-walled) fractures regardless of the ductility of the metal. 

Stress-corrosion cracks tend to branch along the metal surfaces. Typically, evidence of corrosion, such as accumulations of corrosion products, is not observed, although stains in the cracked region may be apparent. Stress-corrosion cracks tend to originate at physical discontinuities, such as pits, notches, and corners. Areas that may possess high-residual stresses, such as welds or arc strikes, are also susceptible. 

Microstructural examinations revealed that the cracks originated on the external surface (Fig. 9.15). The cracks were highly branched and transgranular. The branched, transgranular character of these cracks is typical of stress-corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless steels. The thick-walled fracture faces are also typical of cracking by this mode. 

Surface defects, if sufficiently severe, may result in failure by themselves. More commonly, they act as triggering mechanisms for other failure modes. For example, open laps or seams may lead to crevice corrosion or to concentration sites for ions that may induce stress-corrosion cracking. 

General description. In incomplete fusion, complete melting and fusion between the base metal and the weld metal or between individual weld beads does not occur (Fig. 15.8). Incomplete fusion that produces crevices or notches at surfaces can combine with environmental factors to induce corrosion fatigue (Chap. 10), stress-corrosion cracking (Chap. 9), or crevice corrosion (Chap. 2). See Fig. 15.9. 

Avoid surface discontinuities such as pits, slip marks (notches) and other damage that act as stress risers. Stresses concentrate at the tip of the notch. Therefore, stress-corrosion cracks usually originate from the base of a pit. 

Flange face areas experience stagnant conditions. Additionally, some gasket materials, such as asbestos fiber, contain leachable chloride ions. This creates crevice and stress corrosion cracking problems on sealing surfaces. Where necessary, flange faces that are at risk can be overlaid with nickel-based alloys. Alternatively, compressed asbestos fiber gaskets shrouded in PTFE may be used. 

Hardness, including surface hardness, especially for materials for sour service or environments in which stress corrosion cracking is expected. It is also important where erosion corrosion is likely ... 

Surface finish, since good surface finish retards the onset of certain types of corrosion attack, including pitting and stress corrosion cracking. 

The arbitrary division of behaviour has been made because of the extreme behaviour of some chemicals that initiate small areas of attack on a well-passivated metal surface. The form of attack may manifest itself as stress-corrosion cracking, crevice attack or pitting. At certain temperatures and pressures, minute quantities of certain chemicals can result in this form of attack. Chloride ions, in particular, are responsible for many of the failures observed, and it can be present as an impurity in a large number of raw materials. This has led to the development of metals and alloys that can withstand pitting and crevice corrosion, but on the whole these are comparatively expensive. It has become important, therefore, to be able to predict the conditions where more conventional materials may be used. The effect of an increase in concentration on pitting corrosion follows a similar relationship to the Freundlich equation where... 

Pitting and stress corrosion cracking, although usually associated with stainless steels in chloride media, have not been observed on recovered surgical implants. Implants often exhibit cracks and surface pitting, but these are most likely the result of improper manufacture rather than corrosion . 

The 18% Ni maraging steels do not display passivity and normally undergo uniform surface attack in the common environments. Of more serious consequence, however, for all high strength steels, is the degree of susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking (s.c.c.). 

If crack propagation occurs by dissolution at an active crack tip, with the crack sides rendered inactive by filming, the maintenance of film-free conditions may be dependent not only upon the electrochemical conditions but also upon the rate at which metal is exposed at the crack tip by plastic strain. Thus, it may not be stress, per se, but the strain rate that it produces, that is important, as indicated in equation (8.8). Clearly, at sufficiently high strain rates a ductile fracture may be propagated faster than the electrochemical reactions can occur whereby a stress-corrosion crack is propagated, but as the strain rate is decreased so will stress-corrosion crack propagation be facilitated. However, further decreases in strain rate will eventually result in a situation where the rate at which new surface is created by straining does not exceed the rate at which the surface is rendered inactive and hence stress corrosion may effectively cease. 

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