Modeling the influence of microstructure on the stress distributions of corrosion pits

Abstract

This work explores how microstructure influences stress distributions around corrosion pits through computational modeling that captures crystallographic orientation dependencies in corrosion potential and mechanical response. Several sites are considered for initial corrosion pits to investigate the resultant variation in pit geometry and stress quantities. Comparisons to a homogeneous, semi-circular model show that microstructure-sensitive cases can have much larger maximum stress magnitudes, but the stress intensity factors from the homogeneous case are quite congruous to those from the microstructure-sensitive cases. This study illustrates how microstructure impacts local quantities, whereas global quantities are more consistent and comparable to a fully homogeneous assumption.