Abstract. The induced residual stresses in stainless steels as a consequence of surface grinding as well as their influence on the chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility have been investigated. Three types of materials were studied: 304L austenitic stainless steel, 4509 ferritic stainless steel and 2304 duplex stainless steel. Surface grinding using 60# and 180# grit size abrasives was performed for each material. Residual stress depth profiles were measured using X-ray diffraction. The susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking was evaluated in boiling MgCl 2 according to ASTM G36. Specimens were exposed without applying any external loading to evaluate the risk for SCC caused solely by residual stresses. Induced residual stresses and corrosion behavior were compared between the austenitic, ferritic and duplex stainless steels to elucidate the role of the duplex structure. For all materials, the grinding operation generated tensile residual stresses in the surface along the grinding direction but compressive residual stresses perpendicular to the grinding direction. In the subsurface region, compressive stresses in both directions were present. Microcracks initiated due to high grinding-induced tensile residual stresses in the surface layer were observed in austenitic 304L and duplex 2304, but not in the ferritic 4509. The surface residual stresses decreased significantly after exposure for all specimens.
IntroductionStainless steels are widely used in a variety of applications due to their combination of good mechanical properties and high corrosion resistance. There are a large number of stainless steel grades with different chemical compositions and microstructures. Since the microstructure has a decisive effect on the properties, stainless steels are often categorized by the microstructure, for example austenitic and ferritic stainless steels; different categories are suited for different applications [1].Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) occurs under the simultaneous interaction of three factors: a corrosive environment, a susceptible material and the presence of tensile stresses [2]. For stainless steels, the chloride ion, which exists in many environments, is unfortunately found to make them prone to stress corrosion cracking. The stress corrosion cracking behavior of stainless steels has been widely investigated during the last decades. Experimental results show austenitic stainless steels are susceptible to SCC while ferritic grades are quite resistant [3]. Due to the combination of austenitic and ferritic structures, duplex stainless steels generally have higher Cl-SCC resistance compared to the austenitic grades, although this may depend on the actual testing conditions [4]. In addition to