Residual stress in stainless steels after surface grinding and its effect on chloride induced SCC

The induced residual stresses in stainless steels as a consequence of surface grinding as well as their influence on the chloride induced stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility have been investigated. Three types of materials were studied: 304L austenitic stainless steel, 4509 ferritic stainless steel and 2304 duplex stainless steel. Surface grinding using 60# and 180# grit size abrasives was performed for each material. Residual stress depth profiles were measured using X-ray diffraction. The susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking was evaluated in boiling MgCl2 according to ASTM G36. Specimens were exposed without applying any external loading to evaluate the risk for SCC caused solely by residual stresses. Induced residual stresses and corrosion behavior were compared between the austenitic, ferritic and duplex stainless steels to elucidate the role of the duplex structure. For all materials, the grinding operation generated tensile residual stresses in the surface along the grinding direction but compressive residual stresses perpendicular to the grinding direction. In the subsurface region, compressive stresses in both directions were present. Micro-cracks initiated due to high grinding-induced tensile residual stresses in the surface layer were observed in austenitic 304L and duplex 2304, but not in the ferritic 4509. The surface residual stresses decreased significantly after exposure for all specimens