Effect of surface machining and cold working on the ambient temperature chloride stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of AISI 304L stainless steel

Effect of plastic deformation induced by cold rolling or surface machining on the susceptibility to chloride-induced stress corrosion cracking at ambient temperature of 304L austenitic stainless steel was investigated in this study. The test material was subjected to three treatments: (a) solution annealed, (b) cold rolled and (c) surface machined to induce different levels of strain/stresses in the material. Subsequently constant strained samples were produced as per ASTM G30 for each condition and these were exposed to 1 M HCl at ambient temperature until cracking occurred. Subsequently the cracked samples were characterized using stereo microscopy, optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy to understand the effect of microstructural changes produced by straining on the susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking at ambient temperature. Strained surface produced by machining accelerated the process of crack initiation resulting in densely distributed shallow surface cracks in a very short period of time as compared to solution annealed and cold worked sample. Crack propagation in cold worked sample was along the slip lines and cracking occurred much earlier than in the solution annealed sample.