Abstract
This paper was studied on the electrochemical corrosion characteristics of weld zone for refrigerating and heating systems pipe. Austenitic stainless steel is widely applied to various fields of industry, because it is good to corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. But STS 304 is reliable to sensitization by heat cycle on welding. Therefore, in this study, electrochemical polarization test of STS 304 steel pipe manufactured by arc welding in tap water was carried out. And then polarization resistance behavior, uniform and local corrosion behaviors of base metal(BM), weld metal(WM) and heat affected zone(HAZ) for STS 304 pipe were investigated. The corrosion current density of STS 304 steel pipe is high in order of BM(153nA/cm2) < WM(614nA/cm2) < HAZ ($1.675{\mu}A/cm2$). The pitting potential of HAZ(238mV/SCE) for STS 304 is lower than BM(1206mV/SCE) and WM(369mV/SCE). Therefore, the local corrosion like pitting corrosion, galvanic corrosion and crevice corrosion of HAZ for STS 304 is more sensitive than BM and WM.
