Effect of Thermal History on Pitting Corrosion of High Nitrogen and Low Molybdenum Stainless Steels

Chromium, molybdenum. and nitrogen are very important alloying elements in stainless steels and its effect was approved in pitting resistance equivalent (PRE) equations and many experimental results. However, Cr can improve the corrosion resistance, but facilitate the formation of sigma phase. Also. Mo has the same effect in stainless steels. If Cr and Mo are added at high amount to increase the corrosion resistance of stainless steel, corrosion resistance in annealed alloys can be improved, but in case of welding or aging heat treatment. its resistance will be drastically decreased. In this work, increasing Cr and N contents but decreasing Mo than the commercial alloys made the experimental alloys. Typical alloys are 25Cr-4.5Mo-0.43N alloy, 27Cr-4.7Mo-0.4N alloy, 27Cr-5.3Mo-0.25N alloy, 32Cr-2.6Mo-0.36N alloy. After annealing and aging heat treatment, microstructures, anodic polarization test, and pitting corrosion test were performed. Annealed alloys showed $100^{\circ}C$ of CPT and aged alloys showed the different tendency depending upon Cr and Mo contents(SFI)