SCC MECHANISM OF STAINLESS STEEL AISI 321 IN ACIDIC CHLORIDE SOLUTION

It is verified that stainless steel AISI 321 is in the active anodic dissolution state in 0.5mol/L HCll+0.5 mol/L NaCl solution at 55℃.The SCC of the steel in the solution cannot be reasonably explained by passive film rupture-nepasivation theory and by hydrogenembrittlement theory.There are evidences that the fracture stress at the tip of the cracksis reduced by anodic dissolution due to its role in relieving strain hardening layer at cracktip.