LAUSR

Present paper deals with an experimental investigation of pitting corrosion of forged 304 stainless steel. Material is exposed to ferric chloride solution to investigate the effect of pitting corrosion. This material is known to provide structural strength with improved toughness and ductility. A number of experiments were carried out on F304 SS under ferric chloride solution by putting it for three different time durations of 8 h, 16 h, and 24 h. The results specify that pit formation increases over time. During experimentation, the number of pits, pit depth, corrosion rate, weight loss, and average pit depth have been measured. Microstructural characterization and surface roughness tests were carried out on the chemically exposed surface to understand the growth of pitting corrosion. Fractographic images high-end microscopy showed that the ferric chloride solution initiates the pitting of 304 austenite stainless steel. Furthermore, the exposure leads to the formation of a number of small pits that coalescence together to form cracks that appear at the bottom of the pit. It was also confirmed that the appearance of small bottom pits initiates cracks by increasing the duration of corrosion test to 24 h which is only due to dissolved inclusive atoms of chloride as revealed by EDX analysis.