ELECTROCHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF HIGH-STRENGTH STAINLESS-STEELS FOR ROCK AND GROUND ANCHORS

Stainless steel ground anchors are still rarely used in Europe. A proj ect was initiated to demonstrate the technical and economic performanc e of stainless steels for such applications. Three different steel gra des were examined, i.e. two austenitic grades 1.4311 ('304LN') and 1.4 406 ('316LN') and one duplex grade 1.4362 ('2304N'). All of them had l ow carbon contents (<0.03%) and were alloyed with nitrogen to improve their strength properties. Different electrochemical tests were carrie d out to assess the performance of stainless steel in chloride/sulphat e environments. The results confirmed that the investigated stainless steels may be employed for a wide range of corrosive ground anchor env ironments.