Effect of solution treatment conditions on the sensitization of austenitic stainless steel

In this study, the impact of the conditions of solution treatment on the degree of sensitization (DOS) of austenitic stainless steel (AISI 304) was investigated in detail. The results derived from the electrochemical potentiodynamic reactivation (EPR) test indicated that the DOS decreased as the solution treatment temperature and time increased. The reason for this was studied via the SEM morphologies and EDS results, which indicated that the grain size influenced the DOS. Furthermore, cellular automaton (CA) was utilized to simulate grain growth, the precipitation of Cr-rich carbides and the three dimensional distribution of the chromium concentration, which vividly illuminated the effect of the grain size on the DOS and was in accordance with the experiment results.