Study on stress corrosion behavior of 316L austenitic stainless steel in hot NaOH solution

In this study, slow strain rate test (SSRT), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate the stress corrosion behavior of 316L austenitic stainless steel in 50 wt.% NaOH solution at 100 °C. In addition, the electrochemical properties of the material were characterized using the EIS technique, and the composition of the corrosion product film was analyzed by XPS. Results show that the mechanical properties of materials deteriorate as the strain rate decreases in the stress corrosion test. However, when the applied strain rate is less than a certain strain rate, the deterioration of mechanical properties tends to be stable. Moreover, appropriate equivalent circuit models are fitted for the stress corrosion behavior of 316L austenitic stainless steel in hot NaOH solution, which can be used to analyze the stress corrosion behavior under various working conditions.