A comparing study of alloy 600 and alloy 690 on resistance to intergranular stress corrosion cracking(IGSCC)

In order to compare the effect of senitization on the intergranular stress corrosion cracking(IGSCC) between Alloy 600 and Alloy 690, these alloys have been sensitized for 1 to 100 hours at 700 .deg. C. The degree of sensitization(DOS) has evaluated by the ratio of Ir(the maximum current density at anodic scan) to Ia(the maximum current density at reverse scan) in the modified double loop EPR(electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation) test in 0.01M H2SO4 + 0.0001M KSCN at 25 .deg. C and at scan rate of 0.5mV/sec. The susceptibility to IGSCC has been measured in 0.01M Na2S4O6 solution using CERT(constant extension rate tester) at strain rate of 1.0 x 10-6S-1. With increasing sensitization time the DOS of Alloy 600 increases to the maximum value at 5 hours and decreases gradually due to the replenishment of Cr to the Cr-depleted grain boundaries. For Alloy 600 samples except those sensitized for less than 1 hour, the DOS measured by the modified EPR test parallel to susceptibility to IGSCC revealed by the ratio of strain to failure (εf, Na2S4O6/εf, Air). It appears that the susceptibility to IGSCC is closely associated with the depth in Cr-depleted concentration profile across grain boundary. For the sensitized Alloy 690 samples exhibited extremely low value of Ir/Ia less than 0.074% and also were immune to IGSCC. The good resistance of Alloy 690 to IGSCC is considered to be attributed to the higher Cr concentration to avoid serious Cr-depletion problems adjacent to grain boundary