Stress Corrosion Cracking: A Brief Historical Snapshot of an Age-Old Problem

Abstract Although stress corrosion cracking (SCC) accounts for just a fraction of all engineering failures, its prevention is a major problem, particularly in the aerospace industry. Recent archaeometallurgical studies show that stress corrosion cracking occurred in ancient metallic artifacts. This article describes investigations that revealed definite evidence for SCC in ancient silver and bronze alloys and a probable case of SCC in low-carat (13K) gold. Diagnostic methods included visual inspection, metallography, and fractography.