The influence of Mn compared to that of Cr,Mo and S on the resistance to initiation of pitting and crevice corrosion in austenitic stainless steels

A large number of production and laboratory heats in grades AISI 304 and 316 with normal and extremely low managanese and sulphur contents and a number of production heats in more highly alloyed austenitic stainless steels have been studied with regard to their resistance to initiation of pitting and crevice corrosion at various temperatures. The criteria for resistance to initiation was the potentiodynamic pitting potential in 0.1 M NaCl and synthetic seawater and the time to attack initiation for crevice corrosion in 0.5 and 5% NaCl solutions. A large number of production and laboratory heats in grades AISI 304 and 316 with normal and extremely low managanese and sulphur contents and a number of production heats in more highly alloyed austenitic stainless steels have been studied with regard to their resistance to initiation of pitting and crevice corrosion at various temperatures. The critieria for resistance to initiation was the potentiodynamic pitting potential in 0.1 M NaCl and synthetic seawater and the time to attack initiation for crevice corrosion in 0.5 and 5% NaCl solutions. The main aims of the study were to examine both the effect of manganese relative to that of chromium, molybdenum and sulphur and the effect of heat treatment and sulphide composition on steels with low manganese contents. Mathematical models for calculation of the pitting potentials have been constructed and multiple linear regression analysis gave the equations and their reliabilities. Lowering of the Mn content in austenitic stainless steels to 0.2% gives rise to a material of interest for constructions where pitting or crevice corrosion are judged to be the only potential types of attack, where operational disturbances leading to greatly increased corrosivity do not occur, where attack can not be tolerated, and where steel with normal managanese content has not exhibited fully satisfactory corrosion resistance. If the above conditions are fulfilled the low manganese content can be said to correspond to the same positive effect as is obtained by an addition of the least 1.5% Mo.