Abstract
Stainless steel is generally known to have characteristics of excellent corrosion resistance and durability, but in a marine environment it can suffer from localized corrosion due to the breakdown of passivity film due to chloride ion in seawater. Furthermore, the damage behaviors are sped up under a cavitation environment because of complex damage from electrochemical corrosion and cavitation-erosion. In this study the characteristics of electrochemical corrosion and cavitation erosion behavior were evaluated on 16.7Cr-10Ni-2Mo stainless steel under a cavitation environment in natural seawater. The electrochemical experiments have been conducted at both static conditions and dynamic conditions inducing cavitation with different current density parameters. The surface morphology and damage behaviors were compared after the experiment. After the cavitation test with time variables morphological examinations on damaged specimens were analyzed by using a scanning electron microscope and a 3D microscope. the galvanostatic experiment gave a cleaner surface morphology presented with less damage depth at high current density regions. It is due to the effect of water cavitation peening under the cavitation condition. In the cavitation experiment, with amplitude of $30{\mu}m$ and seawater temperature of $25^{\circ}C$, weight loss and cavitation-erosion damage depth were dramatically increased after 5 hours inducing cavitation.
