Corrosion Behavior of Austenitic Stainless Steel in Hydrochloric Acid Solution and Flow

Abstract

The corrosion behaviors of austenitic stainless steels, 304 and 316L as a contrast material, are investigated in hydrochloric acid corrosion under different conditions including immersion corrosion, single-phase flow and two-phase flow, respectively. The corrosion mass loss test and electrochemical test were carried out to evaluate the influence of medium temperature and concentration. The specimen surface morphologies and chemical compositions were obtained using scanning electron microscope to analyze the corrosion mechanism. The results show that the static corrosion rates of 304 and 316L steels and erosion corrosion rates of 304 steel increase obviously with the medium temperature increasing, but, the effect of hydrochloric acid concentration on their corrosion rate is less than that of the temperature. The corrosion current density values of 304 stainless steel increase and its passivation region of the polarization curve becomes narrowing and disappeared as the medium temperature increase. Uniform corrosion is the main way found on the surfaces of the stainless steels at room temperature in the hydrochloric acid solution. However, the selective corrosion occurs on their surface with the medium temperature increasing, and the higher temperature and concentration of corrosion medium, the more serious selective corrosion.