Influence of Prior Deformation on the Sensitisation of AISI Type 304 Stainless Steel and Applicability of EPR Technique

Abstract

The influence of prior plastic deformation on the degree of sensitisation (DOS) of AISI 304 stainless steel has been studied for various levels of cold work ranging from 0 to 25% using the ASTM standard A262 practices A and E, and the electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation (EPR) technique. Peak current density and reactivation charge density were determined from single loop EPR experiments and the ratio of the peak current during reactivation to that during activation was determined from double loop EPR experiments. The feasibility of using these techniques for determining the DOS in cold worked samples was examined. The reproducibility of the EPR results is rather poor. There appears to be no well defined systematic trend between the degree of cold work and the DOS as estimated from the EPR parameters. EPR parameters were found to be dependent on the temperature of aging and the degree of prior cold work. Threshold values above which a sample can be treated as sensitised cannot therefore be determined from EPR tests without being confirmed independently by conventional ASTM standard methods.