Alireza Khalifeh

By Alireza Khalifeh

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is the formation and growth of crack through materials subjected to tensile stress and a specific corrosive medium. It can lead to unexpected sudden failure of normally ductile metals. Metal-environment combinations susceptible to cracking are specific. This means that all environments do not cause SCC on all of the alloys. Additionally, the environments that cause this kind of cracking have little corrosion effect on the alloy in normal conditions. In certain states, unwanted environmental and metallurgical changes have occurred and provide the metal-environment combination sensitive to SCC. The SCC sites on the metal surfaces may not be visible by visual inspection, while metal parts are being filled with microscopic cracks. These invisible cracks progress rapidly and lead the component and structures to catastrophic failures. In this chapter, the incidence of SCC on important industrial alloys from the chemical, metallurgical, and mechanical point of view is discussed.

Part of the book: Failure Analysis

By Alireza Khalifeh

Stress corrosion cracking is a phenomenon associated with a combination of tensile stress, corrosive environment and, in some cases, a metallurgical condition that causes the component to premature failures. The fractures are often sudden and catastrophic, which may occur after a short period of design life and a stress level much lower than the yield stress. It can also occur after several years of satisfactory services due to operating errors and changing process conditions. Two classic cases of stress corrosion cracking are seasonal cracking of brass in ammoniacal environment and sensitization and stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels in existence of chlorides, caustic, and polythionic acid. Presence of crack and other defects on the material surfaces accelerates the fracture processes. Therefore, when designing components, the role of imperfections and aggressive agents together must be taken into account. The fracture mechanic introduces a material characteristic namely fracture toughness or K ISCC = σ πa = σ π a , which properly describes the fracture behavior of materials in such conditions. The main objective in writing of this chapter is to present scientific findings and relevant engineering practice involving this phenomenon.

Part of the book: Engineering Failure Analysis