Filtern
Dokumenttyp
Sprache
- Englisch (4)
Schlagworte
- Atmospheric corrosion (4) (entfernen)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
In addition to constructional requirements in civil engineering stainless steels often have to fulfil high visual demands. Unexpected impairments of the visual appearance of stainless steels under low corrosive conditions are a widespread problem today. Frequently it is supposed that this is caused by changes in the alloy composition, worse environmental conditions or improper handling. Within a research project the systematic investigation of several cases of damaged stainless steel bars has shown that the reasons are based on well-known material defects like chemical inhomogeneities (e.g. precipitations or local carburization) or geometrical defects (e.g. undercuts, rolling defects or shell formation). Thus, the failures could be clearly identified as production failures of the respective semi-finished products.
Systematic laboratory and field exposure tests allow to compare nine different stainless steels (three ferritic, three austenitic, and three duplex grades) for civil engineering applications. The influence of surface finish was also taken into account by choosing five different industry-specific features. The three duplex stainless steels revealed excellent corrosion resistance under most of the test conditions. Especially for applications in civil engineering the lean duplex steels offer distinct advantages. The manganese-alloyed 1.4376 and the ferritic steel 1.4509 cannot be recommended as alternative materials as they did not perform satisfactorily.
In indoor swimming pools stainless steels are used not only due to structural and economic reasons but also due to aesthetic considerations. And therefore not only safety relevant load bearing components have to fulfil their tasks but also the visual appearance should be free of any staining. In a lot of cases basic requirements (e.g. design criteria, material selection and maintenance) being essential parts of technical regulations were not taken into account. Typical case studies with explanation of the cause of the corrosion problems and possibilities to prevent them are shown in the present paper.
Due to the large number of stainless steels with different chemical composition and different microstructure the selection of the suitable material represents a huge challenge. In order to facilitate the appropriate grade selection, in the current European standard EN 1993-1-4 a procedure is defined based on the use of a look-up table considering the key variables that influence the selection of stainless steels. The table uses descriptions that competent designers should be able to readily understand or define without prior knowledge. The output from the look-up table is used to select alloys based on a Corrosion Resistance Class (CRC) from I to V. The advantage of this approach is that the designer simply specifies the relevant CRC and does not need to consider in detail which of the many (very similar) alloys to specify.