Inhibition of Chloride Stress Corrosion Cracking of Austenitic Stainless Steel

Surface treatment techniques for inhibiting stress corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless steels are discussed in the light of a proposed mechanism for stress corrosion cracking. Criteria for selecting stress corrosion inhibitors are developed. Several inhibitors selected on the basis of these criteria were tested. The inhibitors were applied as surface treatments on Type-304 stainless-steel U-bends. Time-to-cracking improvements of fifty to several hundred percent were found with very limited amounts of the inhibitors present.