Stress and Environmental Factors Affecting Stress Corrosion Cracking of Duplex Stainless Steels in White Liquor Environments, 2009 TAPPI Engineering, Pulping, Environmental Conference

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Pulp mill environments are changing as the industry pushes for better product yield and quality. Corrosivity of pulp mill environments is generally increasing due to an increase in the liquor concentration and process temperature. Accelerated corrosion problems in old carbon steel digesters and other equipment are forcing pulp mills to either replace or overlay their equipment with higher alloys. DSS are being used for digesters, white liquor accumulators, flash tanks, green liquor tanks, storage tanks and other ancillary pulp mill equipment. Duplex stainless steels have a dual microstructure consisting of roughly 50% ferrite and 50% austenite (by volume). Due to their microstructure, the duplex stainless steels exhibit superior mechanical properties and high corrosion resistance as compared to other grades such as carbon steels and austenitic steels. The volume fraction of ferrite and austenite in DSS depends upon the thermal and mechanical history given to the steel during fabrication or operation. Maintaining equal volume fraction of phases involves a simultaneous control of chemical composition and heat treatment of alloys.