STRESS-CORROSION CRACKING AND COMPONENT FAILURE - CAUSES AND PREVENTION

The century-old problem of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in metals a nd alloys has been reviewed highlighting the metallurgical factors lik e grain boundary precipitation and grain boundary segregation contribu ting to the process, the electrochemical aspects of the phenomenon and the current knowledge of the mechanisms which can be broadly classifi ed as dissolution-based and cleavage-based models. The introduction co vers some field examples of SCC. SCC test methods and preventive measu res for SCC have also been discussed.