International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)

ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-2, February 2014

The Salt Spray Environments for Mechanical

Degradation of welded SS304 Stainless Steels
Tung-Yung Yung, Ming-Feng Chiang, Ting-Yu Liu
need to extend the certain service lives. For these reasons,
Abstract Stainless steel 304 (SS304) spent fuel canisters and researches of cask materials especially on degradation
casks could be attacked by saline environment during the dry behaviors, thermal fatigue and environmental corrosion
storage period. The welding zone is the most sensitive position to would be very demanding subjects in next few years. Saline
initiate cracks. For concerns on long-term storage safety, the corrosion will be a concern for metal components exposed to
degradation behavior for welding zone should be monitored.
humid environments along the seacoast, as many interim
Slow strain rate tensile tests (SSRT) were conducted to
determine the tensile strength and notched tensile strength
storage systems were located near the seashore. Severe
(NTS) of welded SS304 in 5 wt% saline spray environments at corrosion of stainless steel canisters with the chloride ion and
85 . Both YS and UTS of the weldment were no significantly water vapor in the atmosphere would pose a grave threat to
variation in either saline spray environments. A strain decrease the operational safety and reliability of interim dry storage
was observed, however. Moreover, a specimen with notch could systems. For these systems, the welding areas of the stainless
exacerbate corrosion degradation and aggravate the hydrogen steel canisters and casks are considered as an initial location
embrittlement of SS304 in the saline environment. Although the towards the stress corrosion cracking (SCC), attributed to the
welding and cold-rolled SS304 were exhibited similar welding residual stress and sensitization [3].
mechanical features in saline environments, the lower ductile
Austenitic stainless steels are extensively used in the
weldment could be more dangerous for the spent nuclear fuel
canisters and casks. Local accumulation to higher NaCl
nuclear industry because of their good anti-rust performance
concentration is a crucial factor affecting the susceptibility of in corrosive environments, in addition to excellent ductility,
degradation of SS304 installations in the real storage formability, toughness, and weldability. However, the
environment. mechanical property and corrosion resistance of AISI 304
austenitic stainless steels (SS304) changeable with
Index Terms stainless steel 304, slow strain rate test, sensitization have been reported [4-8], which could be
hydrogen embrittlement, dry storage. accounted by microstructure evolution with welding thermal
cycles. Chromium-rich carbides are formed within the
I. INTRODUCTION temperature range of 500750 , with continuation to grow
As a common practice, nuclear power plants have tentatively at much lower temperatures, however. Thermal sensitization
stored spent fuel in a spent fuel pool. Since the Fukushima is by heat treatment and welding process whereas low
Daiichi nuclear disaster, the interim method of fuel dry temperature sensitization occurs below the chromium-rich
storage has become a major option which is easily carbide precipitation temperature during long-time storage
administrated with lower risk and with more convenience in [3]. A wide number of reports have shown that sensitization is
transportation outside of plants [1]. The SS304 dry storage a significantly factor of grain boundary chromium depletion
canisters are used to keep the spent fuel in integrity and and it seems to be detrimental to inter grain stress corrosion
prevent the fission products from leakage. The vessel consists crack (IGSCC) under chloride condition [3, 5, 6, 9-11]. The
of a metal shell with one to three metal lids sealed by cask surfaces are the areas of chloride deposition with higher
multi-pass welds or by bolts with metal seals. The temperature saline concentration, which increases the pitting sensitivity
of the canister with spent fuel is estimated to be at around and assists the crack propagation of austenitic stainless steel
200 (473K) of the inner surface and at about 80 to 90 (353 [12-14]. Although the NaCl concentration is usually lower
to 363K) of the outer surface during the first few years after than 5ppm in the moist atmosphere near the seashore. Some
cask loading, and it would maintain below 80 (353K) in localized spots, like the lid or bottom edge on a canister
remaining storage period. There has been no severe radiation surface, are with a higher saline concentration and hence with
release affecting the public, no radioactive contamination, condensed NaCl deposits. These salt deposited areas usually
and no suspected attempts to sabotage the storage canister have a large number of welding structures and always degrade
over the last 20 years [2]. However, the interim storage has quickly. The creviced bend beam and compact tension tests
not yet been proven fully safe for storage longer than 20 years on SS304 and SS316 had been done in solutions of high
and the existing dry storage systems worldwide will still be in choride concentrations [15-18], but the degradation behaviors
of the canister materials in lower concentration of saline
Manuscript received Feb. 20, 2014. atmosphere have not been well studied yet, especially with the
Tung-Yung Yung, Devision of Nuclear Fuels and Materials, Institute of welded metal. In order to understand the reliability of the
Nuclear Energy Research, Lontang Township, Taoyuan, 32501, Taiwan, storage canisters in the saline atmosphere, the corrosion
R.O.C.
Ming-Feng Chiang, Devision of Nuclear Fuels and Materials, Institute
resistance and mechanical properties of SS304 with welding
of Nuclear Energy Research, Lontang Township, Taoyuan, 32501, Taiwan, structure should be evaluated, with local accumulation of
R.O.C. NaCl concentration a crucial factor in mind.
Ting-Yu Liu, Department of Materials Engineering, Ming Chi University In this work, the fracture behavior and chloride
of Technology, New Taipei City 24301, Taiwan, R.O.C.
corrosion durability of welding SS304 in 5 wt% saline spray

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 The Salt Spray Environments for Mechanical Degradation of welded SS304 Stainless Steels

environments were investigated and compared with the cold surfaces of smooth and notched specimens in ambient
work specimens. Since the slow strain rate technique provides environment were shown in Figure 2 (a) and Figure 3 (a) that
useful information on SCC susceptibility of materials in any the edges were obviously extended and the inner morphology
corrosive environment in a relatively short time span [16], all of the edge was dimple structures which were typical SSRT
of the mechanical evaluation was studied with a SSRT. The results. In the 5% saline environment, the edge of the smooth
notch tensile specimen tests were also conducted in this work sample was shown to produce a different morphology from
to elucidate the notch fracture behavior of stainless steel in the that of the previous specimen. The saline reaction zone or the
saline atmosphere. The fracture surface and cross-sectional corrosion structures were clearly located as shown in Figure
microstuctures were examined for understanding the 3(b) and Figure 3(d). The dimple-liked structure was not
mechanism of the saline environment SSRT. found from the edge of the surface. Yet, the inner spaces
exhibited obviously the dimple-liked structures as the SSRT
results. The EDS result showed seemingly the saline reaction
II. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION zone with presence of chloride. The saline corrosion with
The base materials were used in the welding type 304 forged slow strain rate was found leading to that the morphology was
stainless steel plates with 17 mm thickness. The welding wire seen with sheet-on-sheet or layer-on-layer the strain rate and
used is 308L bare wire with a 0.9 mm diameter. The chemical the secondary cracks, as shown in Figure 3(b) and Figure 3(d).
compositions of the base and weld metals are summarized in The central areas of all specimens under ambient and 5%
Table 1. The weld design and procedure are including both saline environments revealed the dimple-liked morphologies
cold-wire and hot-wire feeding processes. The welding was with different pole sizes and shapes. The smooth specimens
performed using an automatic gastungsten arc welding under two experimental environments were almost the same
(GTAW) machine at the welding speed of about 5.1 cm/min in shape but the pole sizes were larger in the 5% salt spray
(2 in/min) for cold-wire and 5.1 cm/min (2 in/min) for experiment. The notched samples showed the valley and ridge
hot-wire. The heat input rate is about 20 KJ/cm (50 kJ/in) for like shapes. And the pole sizes were more widely distributed
the former and 20 KJ/cm (50 kJ/in) for the latter. than the smooth ones, shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5.
The SSRT specimens were tested with a slow strain rate Our previous study of the 304 stainless steel plates with
tension testing machine equipped with a salt spray system at a cold-roll to various degrees of reduction had shown that
strain rate of 110-6/s at 85 (358K), with the loading equiaxial austenite grains with annealed twins were found in
direction for the SSRT specimen parallel to the rolling the as-received (AR) specimen [21]. The cold-rolled
direction. The test atmosphere was kept with a spray of 5 wt% specimens (CR) showed needle and band structures. The
NaCl solution until the specimen failed. Three sets of test data needle grains increased with increasing cold roll degree of
were averaged to give a mean value for each test condition. reduction. Furthermore, the microstructure of the cold rolled
Summarized in Tables 2 is the mean measurements obtained specimen at 30% reduction (CR30) exhibited noticeable band
for non-notched SSRT and notched SSRT specimens, structure. The amounts of martensite in the cold-rolled
respectively. The fracture features of the specimens were specimens of different reductions were measured by a ferrite
tested in varying environments with Hitachi S4800 scanning scope. The martensite content near the specimen surface
electron microscopy (SEM). And the cross-sectional of the increased as the cold roll degree of reduction increased. The
notched and non-notched SSRT specimens in 5% saline quantity of -martensite for the cold rolled specimen at 30%
environment were examined with the Oxford electron back reduction was apparently more than that of the as-received
scattering diffraction (EBSD) for identity of the crystalline one. The ferrite numbers increase with the increase of
phases. cold-rolled percentage. In this study, we eliminated the
cold-rolled effects.
Figure 6 shows the EBSD results for a welded 304
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
specimen in 5% saline SSRT. There were the presence of
The difference of 304 and 308L stainless steel materials cracks, -ferrite, and -ferrite (austentite cubic phase). It was
is on the contents of Cr and Ni such that 308L stainless steel a sound evidence of mechanical degradation of the SSRT in
has greater amounts of Cr and Ni than 304. After welding, the saline environment such that cracks or failures occurred by
condensation structures of the 308L weldment are -ferrite, the -ferrite/-ferrite phase boundaries. Figures 7(c) and 7(d)
-ferrite and -ferrite. The -ferrite is present only after the revealed that the -ferrite phase could be located between two
welding process and the -ferrite is absent before the welding. different facets of -ferrite phase. Furthermore, the cracks
Accordingly, the -ferrite in the weldment of the SSRT with residual -ferrite phases were found in Figure 7. The
specimens would be as the key factor of the SCC. The notched welded 304 sample in saline SSRT was also found
amounts of martensite in the cold-rolled specimens of with the residual -ferrite phases that were shown in Figure 8.
different reductions were measured by a ferrite scope. The The fractural cross-section SEM image was compared with
martensite content near the specimen surface increased as the the EBSD IQ plus colored -ferrite phase image. The
cold roll reduction increased. The quantity of -martensite for fractures with residual -ferrite phases and the cracks were
the specimen of 30% cold roll reduction was apparently more induced following the -ferrite phases as shown in Figure
than that for the as-received one. The ferrite numbers were 9(b). The difference of 304 and 308L stainless steel is in the
also increased with the cold-rolled percentage [19-20]. In this contents of Cr and Ni, 308L being with greater amounts of Cr
study, we eliminated the cold-rolled effects. and Ni than 304. After welding, the condensation structures of
The fractural images were shown in Figure 1, that the the 308L weldment are -ferrite, -ferrite and -ferrite, etc.
smooth specimens and notched specimens were different in The -ferrite phases were present after the welding process,
the ductility. The smooth specimens were more ductile and whereas the -ferrite phases were absent before the welding.
more elongated than the originals. The SSRT fracture

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-2, February 2014
Therefore, the -ferrite in the weldment of the SSRT
specimens would be the key failure factor of the SCC.

IV. CONCLUSION
The fractures and cracks of SSRT samples in 5wt% NaCl
atmosphere environment with 110-6 cm/s stain rate at 85
were examined using SEM and EBSD for confirmation that Ming-Feng Chiang, National Taiwan University,
MSE, PhD 2010, Associate Engineer at Institute of Nuclear Energy Research
the failure factor was the -ferrite phases. The non-notched 2010-2012, Engineer at China Steels Co. 2012-present. His works are on the
specimen showed that the residual -ferrite phases were at the materials properties after welding.
edge of cracks, while the notched samples revealed the
residual -ferrite phases were at the fractural surface. After
welding processing, the -ferrite phases were increased In our
experimental environments, -ferrite would be weakened the
mechanical strength as the SSRT results, both in notch and
non-notch specimens. The -ferrite would be the origin of
mechanical degradation initiation and propagation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Ting-Yu Liu, National Chiao Tung University,

MSE PhD 2008, Assistant Professor, Polymer Institute at National Taiwan
The authors are thanks to the financial support from University 2010-2013, Assistant Professor, Materials Engineering at Ming
Institute of Nuclear Energy Research. Chi University of Technology 2013-present. His current research interest
includes nano- and bio-interface related materials.
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83-89

Tung-Yuan Yung, National Central University,

Physics PhD candidate 2012, Associate Researcher at Industrial Technology
Research Institute 2002-2006, Assistant Engineer at Institute of Nuclear
Energy Research 2006-present. His works on the materials for solid oxide
fuel cells, PEM fuel cells and other energy-related materials.

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 The Salt Spray Environments for Mechanical Degradation of welded SS304 Stainless Steels

Figure. 1. The SRRT results in ambient and 5 wt% saline ambient (d) notched in saline atmosphere (e) notched in ambient at
environments at 85 (a) specimen without notch (b) notch the 1000X (f) notched in saline atmosphere at 2500X.
specimens

Figure 2.The fractural samples of the notched in ambient, the Fig. 5. The edge of the fractural surface by variant magnificent SEM
notched in 5% salt spray, the non-notched in ambient and the microscopy images (a) SSRT sample in ambient with 500X (b)
non-notched in 5% salt spray from left to right, respectively. SSRT notch sample in 5% saline environment with 250X (c) SSRT
notch sample in 5% saline environment ambient with 500X (d)
SSRT sample in 5% saline environment with 2000X.

Figure 3. The fractural surfaces of the SSRT (a)non-notched

specimen in ambient (b)non-notched sample in 5% saline
environment (c)notched sample in ambient (d) notched sample in Fig. 6. The center of the fractural surface by SEM microscopy
5% saline environment. images (a) SSRT sample in ambient (b) SSRT sample in 5% saline
environment (c) SSRT notched sample in ambient (d) SSRT sample
in 5% saline environment.

Figure 7. The cracks EBSD of the SRRT sample without notched

with EBSD results. (a) the EBSD pattern (b) the pink color for the
-ferrite phase and the yellow for austentite cubic phase (c) and (d)
the color distribution of austentite cubic phase with [001], [101] and
Figure 4. The edges of the SSRT specimens (a) non-notched in [111] facets.
ambient (b) non-notched in saline atmosphere (c) notched in

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-2, February 2014

Figure 8. The EBSD cracks features of the SRRT sample without

notched (a) the EBSD pattern (b) the pink color for the -ferrite
phase and the yellow for austentite cubic phase (c) and (d) the color
distribution of austentite cubic phase with [001], [101] and [111]
facets.

Figure 9. Figure 10. The cracks features of the SSRT sample with
notched.(a) the SEM of notched edge of the fracture (b) the EBSD
result for notched edge (the white frame area from (a)), the red color
is for -ferrite phase.

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