Novel images of the evolution of stress corrosion cracks from corrosion pits

New insight into the pit-to-crack transition from finite element analysis of the stress and strain distribution around a corrosion pit

Two forms of high resolution X-ray tomographic experiments (i.e. synchrotron based X-ray microtomography and desktop microfocus computed X-ray tomography) are demonstrated in the present paper to illustrate the wide application of these techniques for qualitative and quantitative studies of localised corrosion and environmentally assisted cracking. Specifically, synchrotron based X-ray tomography was used to investigate the localised corrosion morphology within aluminium specimens when exposed in situ to a chloride environment while microfocus computed X-ray tomography was used to investigate the morphology and quantify the transition from localised corrosion to stress corrosion cracking in steel specimens exposed ex situ to a simulated corrosive condensate environment.

S. Zhou

Papers

Modelling of the evolution of stress corrosion cracks from corrosion pits