Despite various strategies
to address sticking failure in stainless
steels (STSs), difficulties in understanding its fundamental mechanisms
hinder precise solutions during STS fabrication. This study investigated
the effect of chromium (Cr) content on the microstructures and failure
modes of oxide scales under a tensile load, simulating the hot-rolling
process. The dynamic, real-time behavior of crack initiation, propagation,
and interfacial delamination in the oxide scales under tension was
analyzed using an
in situ
scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) tensile test. With a high Cr content, iron (Fe) oxide and chromium(III)
oxide (Cr
2
O
3
) form a layered structure, which
is delaminated along the interfaces between the thin Cr
2
O
3
layer and the bulk after perpendicular cracking. The
saturated crack densities obtained from
in situ
SEM
provide interfacial strength, while the elastic modulus and hardness
obtained from nanoindentation provide vertical fracture strength.
In combination with an
ex situ
elemental image analysis,
the
in situ
SEM results reveal three different failure
modes of the four different STSs. The results confirm that sticking
failure is more likely to occur as the Cr content increases.