Effect of Grain Size on the Corrosion Behavior of 304L Stainless Steel

In this investigation, the effect of grain size on the corrosion behavior of 304L stainless steel has been studied. Samples with grain sizes of 0.5, 3 and 12 micrometers were fabricated through formation of strain-induced martensite by 80% cold rolling of the stainless steel sheets at -15 °C and its reversion to austenite during annealing at 900 °C for 1, 5 and 180 min. The corrosion behavior of samples with different grain sizes was investigated by cyclic polarization experiments and immersion tests in 0.1 M hydrochloric acid (HCl). The polarisation tests showed no differences in uniform corrosion rates of the samples. The results of the cyclic polarisation and immersion tests showed that decreasing the grain size improved the pitting corrosion resistance from 290 mVAg/Agcl for grain size of 12 micrometers to 420 mVAg/Agcl for grain size of 0.5 micrometers.