Effect of Nitrogen on Stress Corrosion Behavior of Austenitic Stainless Steels Using Electrochemical Noise Technique

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) studies were conducted on austenitic stainless steels with two different nitrogen contents (0.07 and 0.22 wt.% N) in boiling acidified sodium chloride medium using constant load technique. Progress of SCC was monitored using electrochemical noise (EN) technique to understand the effect of nitrogen addition on SCC initiation and propagation. With increase in nitrogen content, the characteristic frequency of corrosion events, f n increased, whereas the characteristic charge, q decreased simultaneously indicating the increased stability of passive film resulting in higher resistance to SCC.