Stress Corrosion Crock Nucleation and Growth In Austenitic Stainless Steels^*

A method has been developed which permits quantitative evaluation of susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels to stress corrosion. It separates the process into two separate stages, each of which is expressed in terms of a characteristic constant. This method is expected to be of use in fundamental studies of stress corrosion designed to evaluate the numerous compositional and exposure variables. Characteristic constants have been determined for six types of steels and the significance of these results is discussed. 3.5.8