• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.129-136
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• 2010

The corrosion behaviors of 316L stainless steel were investigated in simulated anodic and cathodic environments for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) by using electrochemical measurement techniques. Interfacial contact resistance(ICR) between the stainless steel and gas diffusion layer(GDL) was also measured. The possibility of 316L was evaluated as a substitute material for the graphite bipolar plate of PEMFC. The value of ICR decreased with an increase in compaction stress(20 N/$cm^2$~220 N/$cm^2$) showing the higher values than the required value in PEMFC condition. Although 316L was spontaneously passivated in simulated cathodic environment, its passive state was unstable in simulated anodic environment. Potentiostatic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement results showed that the corrosion resistance in cathodic condition was higher and more stable than that in anodic condition. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and inductively coupled plasma(ICP) were used to analyze the surface morphology and the metal ion concentration in electrolytes.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.552-556
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• 2017

Evaluation of the durability and stability of materials used in power plants is of great importance because parts or components for turbines, heat exchangers and compressors are often exposed to extreme environments such as high temperature and pressure. In this work, high-temperature corrosion behavior of 316 L stainless steel in a carbon dioxide environment was studied to examine the applicability of a material for a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle as the next generation power plant system. The specimens were exposed in a high-purity carbon dioxide environment at temperatures ranging from 500 to $800^{\circ}C$ during 1000 hours. The features of the corroded products were examined by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope, and the chemical compound was determined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results show that while the 316 L stainless steel had good corrosion resistance in the range of $500-700^{\circ}C$ in the carbon dioxide environment, the corrosion resistance at $800^{\circ}C$ was very poor due to chipping the corroded products off, which resulted in a considerable loss in weight.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.38-42
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• 2008

316L stainless steel welding tube was electrolytically polished and the inner surface characteristics of the tube were tested. Electro-polishing variables such as current, voltage, concentration of electrolyte and electropolishing time were changed to seek for optimum condition. These makes a optimum conditions for the electro-polishing as 4000 A, 9 V, 1.7 specific gravity of electrolyte, and 30 minute of electro-polishing time. It makes the surface roughness as Ra < $0.25{\mu}m$. XPS test resulted as the ratio of CrO/FeO equals or more to 3/1. AES test resulted as the thickness of CrO film of $38{\AA}$. DTA test resulted as the tube did not react with $N_2,\;H_2\;and\;O_2$ gas below 1073K. As summarize above results, the electro- polished 316L stainless steel welding tube satisfied the conditions to apply as a pipeline for semi- conductor production facility and clean room.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.515-521
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• 2011

Small punch creep testing has received attention due to the convenience of using smaller specimens than those of conventional uniaxial creep tests, which enables creep testing on developing or currently operational components. However, precedent studies have shown that it is necessary to consider friction between the punch and specimen when computing uniaxial equivalent stress from a finite element model. In this study, small punch creep behaviors of AISI 316L stainless steel, which is widely used in high temperature-high pressure machineries, have been compared for the two different ceramic balls such as $Si_3N_4$ and $Al_2O_3$. The optimal range of the friction coefficient is 0.4~0.5 at $650^{\circ}C$ for the best fit between experimental and simulation data of AISI 316 L stainless steel. The higher the friction coefficient, the longer the creep rupture time is. Therefore, the type of ceramic ball used must be specified for standardization of small punch creep testing.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.300-313
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• 2022

Interest in polymer electrolyte fuel cell is growing to replace fossil fuels. In particular, in order to reduce the cost and volume of the fuel cell, research on a metallic bipolar plate is being actively conducted. In this research, investigated the effects of temperature and chloride concentration on the electrochemical characteristics and damage behavior of 316L stainless steel in an accelerated solution simulating the cathodic operating condition of PEMFC(Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell). As a result of the experiments, the corrosion current density, damage size, and surface roughness increased as the temperature and chloride concentration increased. In particular, the temperature had a significant effect on the stability of the oxide film of 316L stainless steel. In addition, it was described that the growth of the pit was affected by the chloride concentration rather than the temperature. As a result of calculating the corrosion tendency to compare the pitting corrosion rate and the uniform corrosion rate, the uniform corrosion tendency became larger as the temperature increased. And the effects of chloride concentration on corrosion tendency was different according to temperature.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to propose a multiple linear regression (MLR) equation to predict ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 316L stainless steel with unspecified pit corrosion. Tensile specimens with pit corrosion were prepared using a potentiostatic acceleration test method. Pit corrosion was characterized by measuring ten factors using a confocal laser microscope. Data were collected from 22 tensile tests. At 85% confidence level, total pit volume, maximum pit depth, mean ratio of surface area, and mean area were significant factors showing linear relationships with UTS. The MLR equation using these three significant factors at a 85% confidence level showed considerable prediction performance for UTS. Determination coefficient (R²) was 0.903 with training and test data sets. The yield strength ratio of 316L stainless steel was found to be around 0.85. All specimens with a pit corrosion presented a yield ratio of approximately 0.85 with R² of 0.998. Therefore, pit corrosion did not affect the yield ratio.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.722-727
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• 2009

The bipolar plates are not only the major part of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack in weight and volume, but also a significant contributor to the stack costs. Stainless steels are considered to be good candidates for bipolar plate materials of the PEMFC due to their low cost, high strength and easy machining, as well as corrosion resistance. In this paper, 316L stainless steel with and without nitrogen ion implantation were tested in simulated PEMFC environments for application as bipolar plates. The results showed that the nitride formed by nitrogen ion implantation contributed the decrease of the interfacial contact resistance without degradation of corrosion property. The combination of excellent properties indicated that nitrogen ion implanted stainless steel could be potential candidate materials as bipolar plates in PEMFC. Current efforts have focused on optimizing the condition of ion implantation.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.281-288
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• 2021

Due to advancement of the industry, operation of a device in a harsh environment is increasing. Especially, the marine environment contains Cl^- ions which causes localized corrosion such as pitting and crevice corrosion of stainless steel and various metals. In this study, electrochemical corrosion behaviors of austenitic stainless steel (STS 316L) and nickel alloy (Inconel 600) with different seawater concentrations (fresh water, seawater, mixed water) were investigated. The STS 316L and Inconel 600 were etched in 10% oxalic acid and composed of an austenitic phase. Results of Tafel analysis in seawater showed that STS 316L and Inconel 600 presented the highest corrosion current densities of 7.75 × 10^-4 mA/cm² and 1.11 × 10^-4 mA/cm² and the most negative pitting potentials of 0.94 V and 1.06 V, respectively. The maximum damage depths and surface damage ratio by pitting corrosion increased with chloride concentration. The STS 316L had higher PREN than Inconel 600. However, the surface damage and weight loss of Inconel 600 were superior to STS 316L. It was difficult to compare the pitting resistance of STS 316L based on Fe and Inconel 600 based on Ni with PREN simply.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.110-119
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• 2021

In this study, the high-temperature oxidation properties of austenitic 316L stainless steel manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is investigated and compared with conventional 316L manufactured by hot rolling (HR). The initial microstructure of LPBF-SS316L exhibits a molten pool ~100 ㎛ in size and grains grown along the building direction. Isotropic grains (~35 ㎛) are detected in the HR-SS316L. In high-temperature oxidation tests performed at 700℃ and 900℃, LPBF-SS316L demonstrates slightly superior high-temperature oxidation resistance compared to HR-SS316L. After the initial oxidation at 700℃, shown as an increase in weight, almost no further oxidation is observed for both materials. At 900℃, the oxidation weight displays a parabolic trend and both materials exhibit similar behavior. However, at 1100℃, LPBF-SS316L oxidizes in a parabolic manner, but HR-SS316L shows a breakaway oxidation behavior. The oxide layers of LPBF-SS316L and HR-SS316L are mainly composed of Cr₂O₃, Fe-based oxides, and spinel phases. In LPBF-SS316L, a uniform Cr depletion region is observed, whereas a Cr depletion region appears at the grain boundary in HR-SS316L. It is evident from the results that the microstructure and the high-temperature oxidation characteristics and behavior are related.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1357-1368
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• 2021

This paper presents thermal aging effect on fracture toughness properties of GTAW (gas tungsten arc welding) and SMAW (shielded metal arc welding) of 316L stainless steels, and investigates the applicability of the existing three thermal aging models for CASS (cast stainless steels). Thermal aging was carried out at 350 ℃ for up to 15,000h and at 400 ℃ up to 8,000h. After aging, tensile and fracture toughness tests using 0.5T C(T) specimens were carried out at room temperature and at 288 ℃. Comparing with the predictions using three (ANL, French and H3T) thermal aging models for CASS show that the predictions can be very non-conservative at operating temperature, and thus that the existing thermal aging models for CASS cannot be applied to the welded stainless steels.