Study of deleterious phases precipitation influence on corrosion resistance by cyclic anodic polarization tests in superduplex stainless steels

The influence of deleterious phases precipitation in corrosion resistance was investigated in two superduplex stainless steel (SDSS) UNS S32750 with different grain sizes. Isothermal treatments were performed in order to introduce various quantities of deleterious phases, such as chi, sigma, secondary austenite and chromium nitrides. Under these conditions corrosion tests were carried out by cyclic anodic polarization method. Studies by light optical microscopy (LOM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed to characterize the precipitated phases and the precipitation kinetics. The results allow to correlate the values obtained by polarization tests with the percentage of deleterious phases precipitates to the different conditions of treatments of SDSS with similar compositions, but with different grain sizes. It was observed that the grain sizes and aging temperature influence the kinetics of precipitation, morphology and size of deleterious phases. These features affect the corrosion resistance of SDSS.

Superduplex stainless steel; Corrosion resistance; Cyclic anodic polarization tests