Intergranular corrosion damage evaluation through laser scattering technique

AISI type 316 austenitic stainless steel in sensitized condition was subjected to ASTM A262 practice A test (electrolytic etching in 10% ammonium persulphate at 1 A/cm²) for various durations from 10 s to 90 s. The different degrees of intergranular corrosion attack produced on these tested specimens were evaluated by laser scattering technique using a 1 mW He-Ne laser. The scattering intensity pattern of the laser beam incident on the specimen was acquired using a CCD camera and transferred to a computer for further analysis. The specular intensity of the scattering pattern and its full width at half maximum (FWHM) was calculated. The results indicated that the specular intensity decreased and the FWHM increased as the degree of IGC attack increased. A good correlation was found between the extent of IGC with the laser scattering parameters.