Environment-dependence of the mechanical properties of metals at high temperature

Premature failure of engineering components can result from the combined influences of corrosion and residual or applied stresses to produce the effects found in corrosion fatigue and stress corrosion cracking.l,2 In choosing alloys for operation in the creep range it has usually been assumed that their strength and corrosion resistance are separately acceptable. However, there is now a growing awareness that chemical and mechanical effects at elevated temperatures will interact; this review summarizes experimental studies under externally applied stresses at temperatures above about 0.4 of the absolute melting point. We shall not be concerned with details of stresses and strains at oxide/metal interfaces since these have been reviewed elsewhere.3, 4 Early work on environmentdependent deformation has been reviewed5 and a conference on environment-sensitive mechanical properties, mostly dealing with effects at ambient temperature, was held in. 1965.6 Board 7 has discussed surface chemistry, creep, and fatigue in impure helium environments.