MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF STEEL IN AQUEOUS CORROSION

CHO CHING LIANG

Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

6 DECEMBER 2010
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SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION

I hereby declare that I have checked this project and in my opinion, this project is
adequate in terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of Bachelor of
Mechanical Engineering.

Signature:
Name of Supervisor: LEE GIOK CHUI
Position: LECTURER OF FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Date: 6 DECEMBER 2010
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STUDENT’S DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work in this project is my own except for quotations and
summaries which have been duly acknowledged. The project has not been accepted for
any degree and is not concurently submitted for award of other degree.

Signature:
Name: CHO CHING LIANG
ID Number: MA07038
Date: 6 DECEMBER 2010
 v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am grateful and would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor

Mr. LEE GIOK CHUI, SMP, KMN. for his invaluable guidance and constant support in
making this thesis. This thesis could not been done without him who not only served as
my supervisor but also encourage me throughout the process. I also would like to
express very special thanks to the panel member who give valuable comment and
suggestion during my project presentation.

My sincere thanks go to all laboratory assistant from Faculty of Mechanical and

Faculty of Manufacturing, Universiti Malaysia Pahang for their teaching and help
during the period of my project.

I acknowledge my sincere indebtedness and gratitude to my parents, Mr. CHO

BOON KIM and Mdm.POW AH MOOI for their love and sacrifice throughout my life.
They have always supported my dreams. They did a fine job raising me. My elder
brother Mr. CHO CHING SIN be recognized for his support.
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ABSTRACT

Steel is the most common structural material and is used in a wide range of
environments. Serious problems from environmental attack may be presented which
significantly decrease characteristics of mechanical properties such as tensile, torsion,
bending, hardness and fatigue stress and thus durability and service lifetime. In this
experiment, the effect of the fresh water environment and sea water environment
corrosion to the tensile strength, flexural strength and hardness of AISI 1010 steel will
be determined. First, the test specimens will be prepared according to the ASTM
standards. Next, the immersion of the steel to the corrosive environment up to a month
according to ASTM G31. The specimens were cleaned and tested for tensile flexural
and hardness properties. Losses in yield strength and ultimate tensile strength for tensile
test, losses in yield load for flexural test and a significant decrease in hardness of the
steel is observed after it is corroded compare to the initial condition. The result obtained
showed that losses in mechanical properties for specimens exposed to sea water were
higher than those exposed to fresh water for every properties tested.
 vii

ABSTRAK

Besi merupakan bahan struktur yang paling umum dan digunakan dalam pelbagai
pembangunan dalam persekitaran.Masalah serius dari serangan persekitaran boleh
menyebabkan impak negetif yang signifikan terhadap ciri-ciri sifat mekanik daya tahan
dan masa perkhidmatannya struktur bangunan berkurang.Matlamat kajian ini adalah
menentukan pengaruh pengakisan daripada air tawar dan air laut terhadap kekuatan
ketegangan, kelentur dan kekerasan besi AISI 1010. Setelah mencemur spesimen dalam
meduim mengkakis selama satu bulan dengan mengikut standard ASTM G31.
Specimen dibersihkan dan kekuatan ketegangan, kelenturan dan kekerasan spesimen-
spesimen tersebut akan diuji. Kerugian kekuatan luluh dan kekuatan tarikan utama
untuk ketegangan, kerugian beban hasil untuk uji lentur dan kerugian yang signifikan
dalam kekerasan besi diamati selepas pengakisan berbandingkan dengan keadaan awal.
Kerugian dalam sifat mekanik untuk spesimen yang dicemur dalam air laut lebih tinggi
daripada yang dicemur dalam air tawar untuk setiap ciri-ciri mekanik besi.
 viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION ii
STUDENT’S DECLARATION iii
DEDICATION iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
ABSTRACT vi
ABSTRAK vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS viii
LIST OF TABLES xii
LIST OF FIGURES xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xv

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Project Background 2
1.3 Problem Statement 3
1.4 Project Objectives 3
1.5 Project Scopes 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 4
2.2 Historical Background 5
2.3 Classification Of Corrosion 6
2.3.1 Uniform Corrosion 6
2.3.2 Galvanic Corrosion 6
2.3.3 Erosion-Corrosion and Cavitation Damage 8

2.3.4 Pitting Corrosion 9

2.3.5 Stress Corrosion Cracking 10
2.4 Corrosion Factors 13
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2.4.1 Temperature Effect 13

2.4.2 Fluid Velocity Effect 13
2.4.3 Potentiometric Hydrogen Ion Concentration (PH) Effect 13
2.5 Aqueous Corrosion 15
2.5.1 Corrosion in Fresh Water and Other Water 17
2.5.2 Corrosion in Sea Water
17

2.6 Preparation and Test of Mechanical Properties for specimens 20

20
2.6.1 Low Carbon Steel
2.6.2 Laboratory Immersion Test and Cleaning of Specimens 20
2.6.3 Determination for Mechanical Properties of Metals After 21
Corrosion

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 23
Flow Chart 24
3.2 Preparation Of Specimens 25
3.2.1 Material Composition Test for Specimens 25
3.2.2 Cutting of the Sheet Metal 26
3.2.3 Stamping of the Tensile Test Specimens 27
3.2.4 Preparation of Vickers Hardness Test Specimens 28
3.3 Laboratory Immersion Experiment 29
3.4 Cleaning and Weigh Loss Measurement for Corroded Specimens 29
3.4.1 Cleaning for the Specimens 29
3.4.1 Weight Loss Measurement for Corroded Steel 30
3.5 Mechanical Properties Testing Process 30
3.5.1 Tensile Test 31
3.5.2 Flexural Test
31
3.5.2 Vickers Hardness Test
32
3.6 Result Analyzing
33

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction 34
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4.2 Test Specimens 34

4.3 Tensile Test Result 35
4.3.1 Specimens for Reference 35
4.3.2 Yield Strength of Specimens for Fresh Water Corrosion 36
4.3.3 Ultimate Tensile Strength of Specimens for Fresh Water 38
Corrosion
4.3.4 Yield Strength of Specimens for Sea Water Corrosion 40
4.3.5 Ultimate Tensile Strength of Specimens for Sea Water 42
Corrosion

4.4 Flexural Test Result 44

4.4.1 Specimens for Reference 44
4.4.2 Yield Load of Specimens for Fresh Water Corrosion 45
4.4.3 Yield Load of Specimens for Sea Water Corrosion 47

4.5 Vickers Hardness Result 49

4.5.1 Specimens for Reference 49
4.5.2 Vickers Hardness for Specimens at Day 14 50
4.5.3 Vickers Hardness for Specimens at Day 28 51

4.7 Discussion 60

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusion 62
5.2 Recommendations 63

REFERENCE 64

A APPENDICES 66
B1 Drawing of Specimens 69
B2 Stress-strain Curve for Tensile Test Specimens 73
Stress-strain Curve for Flexural Test Specimens
B3 Tables and Graphs for Vickers Hardness Test Specimens 78
C Specimens for Testing 85
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LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title Page

2.1 Galvanic Series 8

2.2 Average Concentration of the 11 most Abundant Ions and Molecules In 19
Clean Seawater
3.1 Chemical composition of AISI 1010 26
4.1 Total weight loss for the specimens 35
4.2 Yield strength of specimens immersed in fresh water 37
4.3 Yield strength of specimens immersed in seawater 39
4.4 Comparison between yield strength for freshwater and seawater for 41
tensile test
4.5 Ultimate tensile strength of specimens immersed in fresh water 43
4.6 Ultimate tensile strength of specimens immersed in seawater 45
4.7 Comparison between ultimate tensile strength for freshwater and 47
seawater under tensile test

4.8 Yield load for flexural test specimens immersed in fresh water 50
4.9 Yield load of specimens immersed in seawater. 52
4.10 Comparison between yield load for freshwater and 54
seawater under flexural test
4.11 Vickers hardness for reference specimen at day 0 56
4.12 Vickers hardness for reference specimen at day 14 57

4.13 Vickers hardness for reference specimen at day 28 58

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Title Page

2.1 Galvanic Corrosion: Effect of failure to install galvanic insulators 7

between carbon steel pipe.
2.2 Galvanic corrosion exist at direct brass to black iron connection 9
2.3 Pitting Corrosion at pipe 10
2.4 Stress corrosion crack in bronze monument caused by build up of rust 12
around an iron rod
2.5 The micrograph on the right (X500) illustrates inter-granular SCC of a 12
tube with the crack following the grain boundaries
2.6 Changes in the corrosion and erosion mechanism as a function of liquid 14
velocity
2.7 Curve a 15
2.8 Curve b 15
2.9 Effect of PH on the Corrosion Rate of Iron in Water 17
2.10 Effect of PH on the Relative Attack of Iron in Water 17
2.11 The stress- strain curves for 6-mm diameter steel bars 22
under 0.88% corrosion
2.12 Variation of the ultimate tensile strength of 6-mm diameter steel bars 22
with the degree of corrosion
3.1 Methodology flow chart 24
3.2 Flow of the preparation of the specimens 25
3.3 Spark Spectrometer for testing the metal composition 26
3.4 MSV-C shear cutting machine 27
3.5 Stamping machine 27
3.6 Mounted Harness test specimens 28
3.7 Metken Forcipol 2V Polishing machine 28
3.8 Fresh water and sea water exposure arrangement 29
3.9 HACH Sension5 Conductivity Meter 29
3.10 Electronic scale 30
3.11 Specimens setup for tensile test 31
3.12 Specimen setup for bending test 32
3.13 Vickers hardness test machine 33
4.1 Average composition of material for the specimen 35
 xiii

4.2 Stress-strain curves of tensile test for reference specimen 36

4.3 Graph of yield strength (MPa) against time (Day) for 38
tensile test specimens under fresh water corrosion with
confidence of 0.95
4.4 Graph of yield strength (MPa) against time (Day) for 40
tensile test specimens under sea water corrosion with
confidence of 0.95 .
4.5 Graph of comparison between yield strength (MPa) for 42
freshwater and seawater against time (Day) for tensile
test with confidence of 0.95
4.6 Graph of ultimate tensile strength (MPa) against time 44
(Day) for tensile test specimens under fresh water
corrosion with confidence of 0.95
4.7 Graph of ultimate tensile strength (MPa) against time(Day) for tensile 46
test specimens under seawater corrosion with confidence of 0.95
4.8 Graph of comparison between ultimate tensile strength (MPa) for 48
freshwater and seawater against time (Day) for tensile test with
confidence of 0.95

4.9 Load versus displacement curve of flexural test for 49

reference specimen
4.10 Graph of yield load (N) against time (Day) for flexural 51
test specimens under fresh water corrosion with
confidence of 0.95
4.11 Graph of yield load (N) against time (Day) for flexural 53
test specimens under sea water corrosion with
confidence of 0.95
4.12 Graph of comparison between yield load for freshwater and seawater 55
against time under flexural test with confidence of 0.95

4.13 Graph of comparison between average Vickers Hardness for freshwater 59

and seawater against time under flexural test with
confidence of 0.95
 xiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials

UTS Ultimate Tensile Strength

AISI American Iron and Steel Institute

SCC Stress Corrosion Cracking

PH Potentiometric Hydrogen Ion Concentration

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The corrosion of steel arises from its unstable thermodynamics nature. Steel is
manufactured by iron, which is made in a blast furnace by reducing ores such as
haematite (Fe2O3) with carbon in form of coke. This process can be illustrated in a
simple chemical form ( Zaki Ahmad, 2006):

2Fe2O3 + 3C 4Fe + 3CO2

(iron ore) (coke) (iron) (gas)

This reaction occurs at a very high temperature but the final products, iron and
eventually steel are unstable. Consequently, when steel is exposed to moisture and
oxygen it tends to revert to its original form. This process can be illustrated as chemical
terms ( Zaki Ahmad, 2006):
Fe + O2+H2O Fe2O3.H2O
(iron) (rust)

Corrosion is the degradation of a material properties or mass over time due to

environmental effect. When steel is in contact with air and oxygen it will reduced to
rust. In this case, we would say that the corrosion occurs. If either of these materials is
absent, corrosion usually will not take place. Basic environmental variables such as
potentiometric hydrogen ion concentration (PH), temperature and stress will have effect
on the corrosion rate.
There are three primary reasons for concern and study of corrosion. The reasons
are safety, economics and conservation. For example premature failure of bridges or
 2

structures due to effect of corrosion and effect of corrosion in mechanical properties of

metals can result in human injury and even lost of lives. Piping is another major type of
equipment subjected to corrosion. This includes the water pipes at home, where the
corrosion attack mostly from the inside, as well as the underground water, gas and oil
pipelines that crisscross our land.

1.2 PROJECT BACKGROUND

The corrosion rates of metals are different in different types of environments

which has a significant impact on the mechanical properties of metals.

The group of environments comprises fresh water in lakes, rivers, pipelines,

rains and ground water. Water possesses several properties, one being its ability to
dissolve to some degree most of the inorganic substances occurring in nature (Pierre,
2008). Because of this property, water typically contains a variety of impurities that
may cause problems through the formation of deposits in water lines and boilers.
Besides this, corrosion jeopardizes the mechanical properties of the metals of the
pipelines systems by causing leaks and breaks and affecting the water quality.

Seawater is used by many industries, such as shipping, offshore oil and gas
production, power plants and coastal industrial plants. The main use of seawater is for
cooling purpose and also firefighting in oilfield (Pierre, 2008). Seawater is normally
more corrosive than fresh water and thus has more significant impact on the mechanical
properties of metals because of the higher conductivity and the penetrating power of the
chloride ion through surface film on the metal.
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1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

In recent years, study of the corrosion has become significant. A lot of time and
money were spent to study about the corrosion. All these study are aimed to study the
behaviour of material and enhance the safety of equipment, structures, prevent leakage
of gas and oil pipelines and water pipelines. Corrosion will have effect on the
mechanical properties of steel.

1.4 PROJECT OBJECTIVE

The aims of this project are to investigate the effect of corrosion in fresh water
and sea water environment conditions to tensile, bending strength and hardness of steel.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The specimens AISI 1010 steel were cut ASTM standard and placed in fresh
water with 0% salinity and seawater with 35.1% salinity which was the corrosive
environment for a certain period. This study involved laboratory work such as tensile
and bending test of corroded specimens. The scope of this study involved 3 phases of
work. The preliminary work was to prepare the specimens for tensile and bending test
based on ASTM standards. The second phase was to expose the specimens into the
corrosive environments (fresh water and seawater) according to ASTM G31 and
cleaned according to ASTM G1 standard. Finally, the tensile and bending tests were
carried out using INSTRON Universal Testing Machine and the hardness of the
specimens after corrosion was tested by Vickers hardness test machine.
 4

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Corrosion is known commonly as rust, corrosion since ancient times has

affected not only the quality of daily lives of people. There is a historical record of
observation of corrosion by several writers, philosophers and scientists. The most
important contributions were later made by Faraday (1791-1867) who established a
quantitative relationship between chemical action and electric current. There are few
types of corrosion such as uniform corrosion, galvanic corrosion, pitting corrosion,
erosion-corrosion and cavitations damage and stress-cracking corrosion. There are few
factors that affect the corrosion. There are temperature effects, PH effects and fluid
velocity effect. Aqueous corrosion is classified into corrosion in fresh water and
seawater. Mild steel is the most common form of steel because its price is relatively low
and yet it provides material properties that are acceptable for many applications. Low
carbon steel contains approximately 0.05–0.15% carbon, therefore it is neither brittle
nor ductile. In this present study, the specimen AISI 1010 mild steel will also be
exposed to corrosion testing ASTM G31 (Reapproved 1985) standard practice for
Laboratory Immersion Corrosion Testing of Metals. The tensile strength of AISI 1010
mild steel under different corrosive environment will be tested by using the INSTRON
Universal Testing Machine of 50KN and the hardness of corroded steel will be tested by
Vickers Hardness test machine.
 5

2.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The world corrosion is as old as the earth. It has been known by different names.
Corrosion is known commonly as rust, undesirable phenomena that destroy the beauty
of objects and shorten their life. Corrosion since ancient times has affected not only the
quality of daily lives of people, but also their technical progress. There is a historical
record of observation of corrosion by several writers, philosophers and scientists, but
there was little curiosity regarding the causes and mechanism of corrosion until Robert
Boyle wrote his „Mechanical Origin of Corrosive‟. Philosophers, writers and scientist
observed corrosion and mentioned it in their writings are: Pliny the elder (AD 23-79)
wrote about spoiled iron, Herodotus (fifth century BC) suggested the use of tin for
protection of iron, Austin (1788) noticed that the natural water becomes alkaline when it
acts on iron, Hall (1824) established that iron does not rust in the absence of oxygen.
The most important contributions were later made by Faraday (1791-1867) who
established a quantitative relationship between chemical action and electric current.
Faraday‟s 1st and second law are the basis for calculation of corrosion rates of metals.
Ideas of corrosion control started to be generated at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. Whitney provided a scientific basis for corrosion control based on
electrochemical observation. U.R Evans then provide a modern understandings of the
causes and the control of the corrosion based on his classical electrochemical theory in
1923. Considerable progress towards the modern understanding of corrosion was made
by the contributions of Evans, Uhlig and Fontana. In recent years, corrosion science and
engineering has become an significant part of engineering education globally (Alok
Nayar, 2005).
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2.3 CLASSIFICATION OF CORROSION

2.3.1 Uniform Corrosion

Uniform corrosion is the uniform thinning of a metal without any localized

attack. Corrosion does not penetrate very deep inside. The most familiar example is the
rusting of steel in the air. Uniform corrosion is relatively easily measured and predicted.
Uniform corrosion is relatively rare in making disastrous failures. As corrosion occurs
uniformly over the entire surface of the metal component, it can be practically
controlled by cathodic protection, use of coatings or paints, or simply by specifying a
corrosion allowance. In other cases uniform corrosion adds color and appeal to a
surface. Surface corrosion can indicate a breakdown in the protective coating system,
however, and should be examined closely for more advanced attack. If surface corrosion
is permitted to continue, the surface may become rough and surface corrosion can lead
to more serious types of corrosion.
Examples for uniform corrosion are, rusting of steels in open air, corrosion of offshore
drilling platforms, corrosion of electronics components, corrosion of undergrounds
pipes, corrosion of structural steels, corrosion of heat exchanger tubes, corrosion of
automobile bodies (Alok Nayar, 2005).

2.3.2 Galvanic Corrosion

Galvanic corrosion occurs when two metals with different electrochemical

potentials or with different tendencies to corrode are in metal-to-metal contact in a
corrosive electrolyte. Galvanic corrosion is experienced in older homes where modern
copper piping is connected to the older existing carbon steel pipes. The coupling of the
carbon steels to the copper with the present of electrolyte causes the carbon steel to
corrode which is shown in Figure 2.1. Figure 2.2 shows another example of corrosion
activities that usually happens in pipelines at direct brass to black irons connections.
When a galvanic couple forms, one of the metals in the couple becomes the anode and
corrodes faster than it would all by itself, while the other becomes the cathode and
corrodes slower than it would alone. For galvanic corrosion to occur, three conditions
must be present:
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1. Electrochemically dissimilar metals must be present

2. These metals must be in electrical contact, and
3. The metals must be exposed to an electrolyte

When two metals with different potentials are joined, such as copper (+0.334)
and iron (-0.440) a galvanic cell is formed. A cell in which the chemical change is the
source of energy is called galvanic cell. The corrosion which is caused due to the
formation of galvanic cell is call galvanic corrosion. The driving force for corrosion is
the potential difference between the different materials. The tendency of a metal to
corrode in a galvanic cell is determined by its position the galvanic series of metal and
alloys. A galvanic series is a list of metals and alloys arranged accordingly to their
relative potentials in a given environment. (Table 2.1) Galvanic corrosion may not occur
if two metals close to each other in the galvanic series are joined, such as copper and
brass (Alok Nayar, 2005).

Figure 2.1 :Galvanic Corrosion: Figure 2.2: Galvanic corrosion exist at

Effect of failure to install galvanic direct brass to black irons connections.
Insulators between carbon steel pipe.

Source: www.corrosion-doctors.com Source: www.corrosion-doctors.com

 8

Table 2.1: Galvanic Series

Source: E.Bardal, 2003

2.3.3 Erosion-Corrosion and Cavitation Damage

Erosion corrosion is caused by acceleration in the rate of corrosion attack in

metal due to the relative motion of a corrosive fluid and a metal surface. The increased
turbulence caused by pitting on the internal surfaces of a tube can result in rapidly
increasing erosion rates and eventually a leak. Erosion corrosion can also be aggravated
by faulty workmanship. For example, burrs left at cut tube ends can upset smooth water
flow, causes localized turbulence and high flow velocities, resulting in erosion corrosion.
A combination of erosion and corrosion can lead to extremely high pitting rates.
 9

Erosion-corrosion is most prevalent in soft alloys (i.e. copper, aluminium and

lead alloys). Alloys which form a surface film in a corrosive environment commonly
show a limiting velocity above which corrosion rapidly accelerates. With the exception
of cavitation, flow induced corrosion problems are generally termed erosion-corrosion,
encompassing flow enhanced dissolution and impingement attack. The fluid can be
aqueous or gaseous, single or multiphase. Erosion-corrosion is associated with a flow-
induced mechanical removal of the protective surface film that results in a subsequent
corrosion rate increase via either electrochemical or chemical processes. It is often
accepted that a critical fluid velocity must be exceeded for a given material. The
mechanical damage by the impacting fluid imposes disruptive shear stresses or pressure
variations on the material surface and/or the protective surface film. Erosion-corrosion
may be enhanced by particles (solids or gas bubbles) and impacted by multi-phase flows.
The morphology of surfaces affected by erosion-corrosion may be in the form of
shallow pits or horseshoes or other local phenomena related to the flow direction (Philip,
2006).

Cavitation sometimes is considered a special case of erosion-corrosion and is

caused by the formation and collapse of vapour bubbles in a liquid near a metal surface.
Cavitation removes protective surface scales by the implosion of gas bubbles in a fluid.
Cavitation damage often appears as a collection of closely spaced, sharp-edged pits or
craters on the surface.

2.3.4 Pitting Corrosion

Pitting corrosion is a form of localised corrosion of a metal surface in which

small volumes of metal are removed by corrosion from certain areas corrodes leading to
the formation of cavities or pits in pipes or vessel wall as shown in Figure 2.3 and the
bulk of the surface remains un-attacked. Metals like aluminium and steels are more
susceptible to this form of corrosion. It causes failure by penetration with only small
percent of weight loss of the entire structure. It is a major type of failure in chemical
processing industry. The destructive nature of pitting usually makes the entire system to
be replaced (Alok Nayar, 2005).
 10

Pitting corrosion can produce pits with their mouth open or covered with a semi-
permeable membrane of corrosion products. Pits can be either hemispherical or cup-
shaped. Pitting is initiated by:

i. Localized chemical or mechanical damage to the protective oxide film; water

chemistry factors which can cause breakdown of a passive film are acidity, low
dissolved oxygen concentrations (which tend to render a protective oxide film
less stable) and high concentrations of chloride (as in seawater)
ii. Localized damage to, or poor application of protective coating
iii. The presence of non-uniformities in the metal structure of the component, e.g.
nonmetallic inclusions.

Figure 2.3: Pitting Corrosion at pipe

Source: www.corrosion-doctors.com

2.3.5 Stress Corrosion Cracking

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is the cracking induced from the combined
influence of tensile stress and a corrosive environment. The impact of SCC on a
material usually falls between dry cracking and the fatigue threshold of that material.
The required tensile stresses may be in the form of directly applied stresses or in the
form of residual stresses. The impact is most commonly catastrophic but rarely.

Cold deformation and forming, welding, heat treatment, machining and grinding
can introduce residual stresses. The magnitude and importance of such stresses is often
 11

underestimated. The residual stresses set up as a result of welding operations tend to

approach the yield strength. The build-up of corrosion products in confined spaces can
also generate significant stresses and should not be overlooked. SCC usually occurs in
certain specific alloy-environment-stress combinations. Cooling from high temperature
may also induced internal stresses because of non uniform cooling. Another source of
stress may be come from corrosion products from general corrosion or other form of
corrosion may build up between mating surface and because the corrosion products
occupy so much volume than the metal from which they are produced, generate
sufficient stresses to causes SCC. In Figure 2.4, moisture caused the corrosion in the
iron rod in combination with the galvanic corrosion due to the contact with the bronze
support caused a volume of rust building up to generate high stresses and induce SCC
(Pierre, 2008).

In most case of SCC, the metal surface remains un-attacked but only with fine
cracks penetrating into the material. In the microstructure, these cracks can have an
inter-granular or a trans-granular morphology. Macroscopically, SCC fractures have a
brittle appearance as shown in Figure 2.5. SCC is classified as a catastrophic form of
corrosion, as the detection of such fine cracks can be very difficult and the damage not
easily predicted. Experimental SCC data is notorious for a wide range of scatter. A
disastrous failure may occur unexpectedly, with minimal overall material loss.

There are some methods in preventing SCC, firstly, choose with the right
materials. Secondly, reduce stresses. Thirdly, remove critical environmental species
such as hydroxides, chlorides, and oxygen. Lastly, avoid stagnant areas and crevices in
heat exchangers where chloride and hydroxide might become concentrated. Low alloy
steels are less susceptible than high alloy steels, but they are subject to SCC in water
containing chloride ions.