Stress Corrosion Cracking - JAMWiki

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Stress Corrosion Cracking

Overview
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Stress corrosion cracking is a type of corrosion leading to internal cracks and subsequent, sometimes catastrophic failure. This type of corrosion can occur when an alloy is subjected to the conjoint action of constant tensile stress and an environment promoting usually localized corrosion. Stress corrosion cracking would not occur in the absence of the tensile stress or in the absence of the particular environment. The alloy exhibiting stress corrosion cracking usually has physical properties that are consistent with ductility requirements for the application in question. The stresses are often residual stresses within the alloy resulting, for example, from fabrication procedures such as welding as can occur with some types of stainless steels. Stress corrosion cracks can be transgranular or intergranular or even a mixture of the two. Transgranular cracks move through individual grains along strain generated paths. Intergranular cracks move around the grains along preexisting paths. The picture below shows a transgranular crack in 316 stainless steel.

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Mechanism
One feature that seems to be found in most instances of stress cracks is that their geometry shows a high ratio between depth and width. This geometry resembles that found with crevices. This geometry creates a set of conditions within the crack

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especially at the crack tip that resembles that found in Crevice Corrosion or Pitting Corrosion. The figure below shows a crack that might be found with an alloy such as stainless steel in a chloride-containing environment.

The following phenomena occur in the crack region.

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Local oxygen depletion occurs in the vicinity of the crack resulting in a depression of the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction in that region. Metal dissolution causes in increase in metal ion concentration. Hydrolysis of the metal ions results in liberation of hydrogen ions and an increase in acidity, i.e. a drop in pH. Chloride ion concentration increases within the crack to maintain charge neutrality. The narrowness of the crack means tends to result in the solution resistance along length of the crack being large. The result is a potential difference between the mouth and tip of the crack. The dissolution process is driven by the reduction of oxygen on the outer surface. In addition, the acidity can become high enough, the pH can become low enough, that water can be reduced at the crack tip resulting in hydrogen liberation.

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Stress corrosion cracking is a complex interaction of tensile stress and corrosion in an alloy-environment combination. That complexity means that not only is stress corrosion cracking not a property of either the environment or the alloy but one mechanistic model cannot describe interactions of all alloys with all environments. For this reason discussion of a single mechanism is difficult. What can be presented are general conditions which have been observed when stress corrosion cracking has occurred. Not all conditions apply to all alloys and environments.

General Conditions
Predicting environments that consistently cause stress corrosion cracking in an alloy cannot be done. Two processes occur (1) removal or dissolution of material at the crack tip and (2) separation of the alloy at the crack tip. Some alloy-environment characteristics as listed below are more prone to creating conditions for stress corrosion cracking. But note that stress corrosion cracking may not occur even if the condition is fulfilled.
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Alloys that are normally very passive often require an agent in the environment that can promote the breakdown of that passivity. An example is exposure of 316ss to chloride-containing fluids with dissolved oxygen. Alloys that are normally very active often require an agent in the environment that

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can promote the formation of passivity. An example is exposure of carbon steel to more concentrated hydroxide-containing or nitrate-containing fluids.
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The open circuit potential is often required to lie within a certain range that is determined by the alloy-environment interaction. Determining that potential range can be difficult. For example, for some alloys-environment combinations the potential has to be in the region of hydrogen evolution, the absorption of which by the alloy leads to modification of the structure and increased internal stress. In other alloy-environment systems the potential needs to be above that potential which causes localized corrosion to initiate. The measured threshold stress is a stress above which stress corrosion cracking will usually occur. This stress is a function of the alloy and environment. It is not a property of the alloy. Cracking has been found at stress levels below the threshold stress. Alloy constituents can influence initiation of stress corrosion cracking. Specialized heat treatment (tempering) can eliminate the problem. This characteristic is especially true of aluminum alloys. Temperature is an important variable. If stress corrosion cracking is a possibility, often the higher the temperature the greater the risk. But the threshold temperature at which stress corrosion cracking occurs depends on alloy and environment. Stress corrosion cracking usually occurs on materials that exhibit low corrosion rates, i.e. are normally passive, in the environment. The implication is that in many, but not all cases a passive surface layer, e.g. chromium-oxide rich surface region on stainless steel, is required for stress corrosion cracking. An exception to that rule is stress corrosion cracking of copper in certain non-oxidizing environments.

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