We investigated the relationship between sensitization and magnetic characteristics of austenitic stainless steel with different composition. The saturation magnetization increased with increasing heat treatment time and the coercivity increases at first and then decreases for the specimens with higher carbon content. The changes in magnetic properties are not remarkable for the specimens with lower carbon content. The area where the chromium carbides formed yields chromium depletion zone and shows ferromagnetic properties. Chromium depletion zone induces martensitic transformation because the martensitic transformation temperature rises. The obtained results indicate that sensitization is detectable using magnetic measurement.
YaguchiS. and YonezawaT., Effects of Cold Working Ratio and Stress Intensity Factor on Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking Susceptibility of Non-Sensitized Austenitic Stainless Steels in Simulated BWR and PWR Primary Water, Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineering78 (2012), 547-563.
2.
van GestelW., Girth weld failure in 13Cr sweet wet gas flow lines, CORROSION/2004, paper no. 04141, 2004.
3.
AkiyamaT. and TerasakiT., Prediction of Sensitization and Low Temperature Sensitization (LTS) to the Intergranular Corrosion of Austenitic Stainless Steel, Journal of the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials52 (1988), 327-335.
4.
BruemmerS.M. and CharlotL.A., Development of grain boundary chromium depletion in type 304 and 316 stainless steels, Scripta Metallurgica20 (1986), 1019-1024.
5.
KamadaY., MikamiT., TakahashiS., KikuchiH., KobayashiS. and AraK., Compositional dependence of magnetic properties on thermally sensitized austenitic stainless steels, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials310 (2007), 2856-2858.
