Recent years have seen an increase in the use of stainless steel in buildings, mainly owing to its corrosion properties and therefore long service life. Among stainless steels, ferritic and lean duplex grades are characterized by low nickel content resulting in a more cost-stable and economic material compared to austenitic stainless steels. These grades have comparable (or even higher) strength than carbon steel and good corrosion resistance at lower cost. That is why, lately, they have been more often used in structural components. In this paper, attention is firstly paid to the advantages associated with the use of stainless steel in recent construction
STAINLESS STEEL IN CONSTRUCTION APPLICATIONS
General introductionStainless steel is a steel alloy that contains more than 10.5% of chromium. The chromium content in mass ranges from 10.5% to 30% [1]. Depending on the microstructure, four families of stainless steel exist: martensitic, ferritic, austenitic and austeno-ferritic (duplex) stainless steels. Their physical, chemical and mechanical properties vary with the chemical composition (and consequently the family) but each of them is characterized by the ability of forming a selfrepairing protective oxide layer providing corrosion resistance, a higher chromium content enhancing the corrosion and oxidation resistance. In addition to this, nickel -which is present in the chemical composition of austenitic and duplex grades -extends the scope of aggressive environments that stainless steels can support. Figure 1 shows the range of chromium and nickel content of the four families of stainless steels.The most popular grade is the austenitic grade 1.4301 (AISI 304) containing 18% chromium and 8% nickel. This grade has excellent corrosion resistance and is highly ductile. In the construction domain, this grade is available in the following forms: sheet, plate, welded mesh, bar and sections. More specific alloy additions enhance the corrosion resistance. The 1.4401 (AISI 316) grade containing an addition of molybdenum has improved corrosion resistance and is usually regarded as the outdoor grade (sometimes even labelled as the marine grade).While in atmospheres containing chlorides (e.g. indoor swimming pools), especially if the surface cannot be cleaned regularly, specific grades, such as super austenitic grades 1.4529 and 1.4565 for example, offer good alternatives.Ferritic grades do not contain nickel. At ambient temperature, the stress-strain behaviour of these grades is similar to the one of traditional carbon steel while austenitic grades present a large strain-hardening domain up to 50% of elongation at fracture (see Figure 2). Ferritic grades differ principally from austenitic grades in that they have higher mechanical strengths (approx. 250-330 N/mm 2 0.2% proof strength) and lower thermal expansion (10 to 12 10 -6 K -1 ).Duplex types, presenting a microstructure made of austenite and ferrite, share some of the properties of both families, and are mechanically stronger than either ferritic or austenitic ty...