The susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of brass in an ammoniasolution with various pH values or under various applied potentials was measured at slow strain ratetests. The additive stress in the same solution was measured using two methods. The resultsindicate that the variation of the susceptibility to SCC with pH value or with potential is in anexcellent agreement with the corrosion (passive film or dezincification layer)-induced stress. WhenpH >= 7, the corrosion-induced tensile stress and the susceptibility to SCC have maximum values andhardly change with increasing the pH value. However, when pH <7, both the corrosion-induced tensilestress and the susceptibility to SCC reduce rapidly with decreasing the pH value. Both thecorrosion-induced tensile stress and the susceptibility to SCC have maximum values at theopen-circuit potential, decrease slightly under the anodic polarization, and reduce gradually tozero under the cathodic polarization.
The effect of hydrogen on the dezincification layer-induced stress and the susceptibility to SCC was investigated. Experimental results showed that the dezincification layer-induced stress increased with increasing hydrogen concentration, and 3x10-6 hydrogen could increase the susceptibility to SCC of brass in ammonia solution by 10%.
Wuyang CHU, Kewei GAO, Yapin LIU Lijie QIAODepartment of Materials Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
