Investigation of corrosion behavior of welded area of austenitic stainless steel under different environments

Abstract

Stainless steel 316 has excellent corrosion resistance when exposed to different corrosive environments and medium. It is usually regarded as marine grade stainless steel and it is not resistant to the warm sea water. The corrosion behavior of welded austenitic chromium-nickel stainless steel was investigated with different welding process under different solutions or different environments. The corrosion loss measured by the weight loss method, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Austenitic stainless steel was welded by the Arc welding, MIG welding and TIG welding and these weld specimens were investigated by using three different acids which has highly corrosive properties such as Ferric chloride(FeCl3), Oxalic acid, Nitric acid (HNO3). These acids are taken as 1 N concentration for rapid corrosive. The weight loss was measured by 24 h once for 12 days. The micro structure of stainless steel was captured by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy and the lowest and highest rate of corrosion was observed.