ABSTRACT This study examined the effects of cold working and subsequent annealing treatment for a short time on the corrosion behavior of a lean duplex stainless steel (LDSS). The as-received sample was solution treated at 1100 °C for 1800 s and cold rolled. The cold deformation (75%) was followed by isochronic annealing at 900, 950, 1000, 1050 and 1100 °C for 180 s. The microstructural changes were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Vickers hardness, while corrosion behavior was investigated by cyclic potentiodynamic polarization technique and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in 3.5% NaCl solution at 22 ± 2 °C. After cyclic polarization, pits morphology was characterized by SEM. Cold rolling lowered lamellar spacing between the phases and increased hardness. Hardness at temperatures higher than 950 °C was equal to the 2304 LDSS solution treated. Although grain refinement is observed due to recrystallization, the corrosion resistance was not significantly improved. The highest pitting potential and charge transfer resistance were obtained after annealing at 1000 °C for 180 s. The pit distribution indicates that the corrosion behavior of the phases changed during the cold rolling and annealing treatment, and pitting was initiated preferentially in the α/γ boundaries and inside the α domains.

Duplex stainless steel (DSS) has been considered as an excellent alternative for applications where high corrosion resistance and high mechanical strength are required. Therefore, microstructure and properties of DSS remain topics of much interest. For this purpose, the effect of warm-rolling was studied in a duplex stainless steel. The focus of this work was 2205 which is one of the most useful type of DSS. Although evolution of microstructure, texture and tensile properties during warm rolling of DDS have been reported, there is no study on the effect of warm rolling on corrosion resistance of 2205 DSS. In this context, the objective of this work is to evaluate microstructure, texture and mechanical and corrosion properties of UNS S32205 DSS after warm rolling. The duplex stainless steel was warm-rolled at 600°C up to 60 and 80% thickness reduction and submitted to electrochemical tests. The electrochemical behaviour of warm-rolled 2205 in the chlorine ion environment was evaluated using cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CPP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The samples exhibited an excellent corrosion resistance in 3.5% NaCl solution. The study showed that the thermomechanical treatment used favoured the formation of the passive film and led to a greater polarization resistance. This behaviour is consistent with the pits density observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the crystallographic microtexture of the steel.

Thick welded joints of UNS S32304 lean duplex stainless steel (LDSS) has been studied in acidified glycerin, a byproduct of biodiesel plants, using cyclic polarization technique. LDSS S32304 thick plates were welded by different processes commonly employed in the fabrication process: shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding and flux cored arc welding. The electrochemical behavior of different weldment zones was characterized. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for sample characterization. SEM images showed that the heat affected zone was the most critical zone for pitting corrosion for all samples. The results were associated to the microstructural features of the materials. Generally, the breakdown potential of the top regions of welds was higher in acidified glycerin than the weld root for welds fabricated with two different filler metals. Basically, all the welded samples exhibited similar or higher corrosion resistance, compared with the corresponding base metal.