The straining metal electrode technique was applied to the study of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility of Type 304 austenitic stainless steel in H2SO4 solutions and in H2SO4 + NaCl solutions, at room temperature. A film formation process was detected in the active zone of Type 304 in H2SO4 + NaCl solutions. It was concluded that a film rupture mechanism operates during SCC of this metal in H2SO4 + NaCl solutions. The crack propagation rate values and the crack morphologies predicted by straining experiments were found to be in very good correlation with those found by conventional SCC tests.

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