Stress Corrosion of Stainless Steel Welded Joints

Due to the widespread use of stainless steels and the need to make dissimilar welds for their joints it is important to investigate them as failure can be catastrophic. Among the forming processes welding stainless steels stands out as it is recognised that this is one of the operations that can lead to these materials being compromised. Therefore the use of inappropriate welding procedures can permanently affect some of the material's characteristics resulting in significant alterations to the base metal especially in terms of mechanical behaviour and resistance to corrosion. This book discusses the welded joint between an Aisi 309 austenitic stainless steel and an Aisi 2304 duplex stainless steel where several joints were made and subjected to stress corrosion testing until complete fracture and then analysed.