Effect of Annealing on the Stress Corrosion Cracking of α-Brass in Aqueous Electrolytes Containing Aggressive Ions

Abstract

A continuing challenge in materials design is the achievement of greater operational efficiency through improvements in performance criterion, particularly, high strength and service lifetime characteristics. In this study, we report on the effect of heat treatment (annealing) on the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of α-brass (71Cu−28Zn) in aqueous electrolytes containing some aggressive anions (Cl−, ClO3−, NO2−, and SO42−). The annealed specimens suffered from SCC in all tested electrolytes under the anodic polarization conditions while they were susceptible to SCC only in NaNO2 and Na2SO4 solutions under the open circuit condition. The susceptibility toward SCC was found to decrease considerably in NaCl, KClO3, and Na2SO4 solutions and very slightly in NaNO2 solutions upon annealing the specimens.