Chlorine-Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking of Single Crystal Superalloys at 550 °C

Abstract This study has investigated the effect of NaCl and different gaseous environments on the stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of CMSX-4 at 550 °C. The presence of SO x leads to the rapid dissociation of NaCl into Na 2 SO 4 and the release Cl 2 and HCl, which then trigger an active oxidation mechanism and stress corrosion cracking. The incubation time for crack initiation at 690 MPa and in the presence of a sulphur containing environment is 10 min. A working hypothesis is that stress corrosion cracking occurs due to the hydrogen released at the oxide/alloy interface when metal chlorides are formed; however, this hypothesis needs to be further explored.