Electrochemical evaluation of a corrosion fatigue failure mechanism in a duplex stainless steel

Abstract

Laboratory corrosion fatigue studies on smooth and precracked samples indicated that two duplex stainless steels would have similar service lives in a paper-processing environment; but, in service, one of these alloys has exhibited premature failures. Since corrosion fatigue experiments had proven unable to detect this failure mechanism, electrochemical measurements and slow strain rate tensile tests were used to evaluate four alloy composition-dependent failure mechanism hypotheses. No significant differences were found in the dissolution rates or hydrogen fugacities produced when mechanical processes expose bare surface, and slow strain rate tensile tests found no indication of a difference in cracking susceptibility for the same hydrogen fugacity. Electrochemical experiments found that pits nucleate in one phase of the duplex microstructure at lower potentials in the failure prone alloy, but do not propagate beyond the microscopic dimensions of this phase. These microstructurally limited "micropits" were found to nucleate fracture in slow strain rate tensile tests, and examination of a service failure confirmed the presence of microscopic pits at crack initiation sites. The premature failures are attributed to the lower pitting resistance of the failure prone alloy, and the failure of laboratory experiments to predict this behavior is attributed to the slow kinetics of pit nucleation in these experiments. A laboratory testing methodology is suggested that will ensure detection of similar susceptibilities in future corrosion fatigue testing programs.

Corrosion Fatigue-Cracking Behaviors of Low Alloy Steels in Seawater for Offshore Engineering Structures

“…[37] In addition, the corrosion current can also indirectly reflect the corrosion rate at the crack tip. [38] Figure 18(b) shows the variation law between corrosion current and increasing corrosion time.…”