Development of corrosion flaws for the production of realistic test specimens

Abstract To produce realistic test specimens with realistic flaws, it is necessary to develop appropriate procedure for corrosion flaw production. Tested specimens are made from steels commonly used in power plants, such as carbon steels, stainless steels and their dissimilar weldments. In this study, corrosion damage from NaCl water solution and NaCl water mist are compared. Specimens were tested with and without mechanical bending stress. The corrosion processes produced plane, pitting and galvanic corrosion. On dissimilar weldments galvanic corrosion was observed and resulted to the deepest corrosion damage. Deepest corrosion flaws were formed on welded samples. The corrosion rate was also affected by the solution flow in a contact with the specimens, which results in a corrosion-erosive wear. Produced flaws are suitable as natural crack initiators or as realistic corrosion flaws in test specimens.