Influence of Microstructure on the Corrosion Resistance of AISI 317L (UNS S31703)

The AISI 317L stainless steel is an austenitic grade with at least 3%Mo. Recently, this steel has replaced AISI 316L in many applications in chemical and petrochemical industries, due to its higher pitting corrosion resistance. The microstructure of the hot rolled and annealed material studied in this work consists of austenitic grains and 4.0% of delta ferrite (δ) with elongated islands morphology. This microstructure was modified by three processes: cold rolling with 87% of reduction, aging at 450ºC for 400 h, and welding by gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process. The corrosion resistance...