Examination of the 1970 National Bureau of Standards Underground Corrosion Test Welded Stainless STeel Coupons from Site D

Abstract

A 1970 study initiated by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), buried over 6000 corrosion coupons or specimens of stainless steel Types 201, 202, 301, 304, 316, 409, 410, 430, and 434. The coupons were configured as sheet metal plates, coated plates, cross-welded plates, U-bend samples, sandwiched materials, and welded tubes. All coupons were of various heat-treatments and cold worked conditions and were buried at six distinctive soil-type sites throughout the United States. The NBS scientists dug five sets of two trenches at each of the six sites. In each pair of trenches, they buried duplicate sets of stainless steel coupons. The NBS study was designed to retrieve coupons after one year, two years, four years, eight years, and x years in the soil. During the first eight years of the study, four of five planned removals were completed. After the fourth retrieval, the NBS study was abandoned, and the fifth and final set of specimens remained undisturbed for over 33 years. In 2003, an interdisciplinary research team of industrial, university, and national laboratory investigators were funded under the United States Department of Energy's Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP; Project Number 86803) to extract part of the remaining set of coupons at one of the test sites, characterize the stainless steel underground corrosion rates, and examine the fate and transport of metal ions into the soil. Extraction of one trench at one of the test sites occurred in April 2004. This report details only the characterization of corrosion found on the 14 welded coupons-two cross welded plates, six U-bends, and six welded tubes-that were retrieved from Site D, located near Wildwood, NJ. The welded coupons included Type 301, 304, 316, and 409 stainless steels. After 33 years in the soil, corrosion on the coupons varied according to alloy. This report discusses the stress corrosion cracking and crevice corrosion cracking of the U-bend coupons; the minimal corrosion found on the cross-bead plates; and the general, pitting, and crevice corrosion found on the welded tubes. In general, the austenitic Type 301, 304 and 316 samples showed little if any corrosion after 33+-years in the soil, whereas the ferritic alloys-Type 409 and 434-showed a spectrum of corrosion.