The Effect of Calcium Treatment on Pitting Corrosion of Type 316L Austenitic Stainless steel

Pitting in chloride containing aqueous solution occurs mainly on manganese sulphide. Adding a slight amount of Ca as an alloying element prevents the MnS formation, since Ca is a stronger sulphide former than Mn. In this work, calcium treated Type 316L austenitic stainless steels have been investigated electrochemically to evaluate the effect of modified inclusions on pitting corrosion. Staircase polarization measurements were performed in 3.5% NaCl solution, where the occurrence of pits in materials caused current spikes. During staircase polarization test, steels with calcium treatment show low and discontinuous current spikes while those without calcium treatment show high and continuous current spikes. The results show that calcium treatment in Ca/S ratio of 1 ∼ 2 leads to an increase in the pitting potential of several hundred mV. A relationship between the calcium treatment and pit initiation sites was described