Liquid Metal Corrosion of 316L Stainless Steel, 410 Stainless Steel, and 1015 Carbon Steel in a Molten Zinc Bath

Corrosion tests of 1015 low-carbon steel and two stainless steels (410 and 316L) were conducted in a pure zinc bath (99.98 wt pct Zn) in order to better understand the reaction mechanisms that occur during the degradation of submerged hardware at industrial general (batch) galvanizing operations. Through this testing, it was found that, in general, 316L stainless steel showed the best dissolution resistance among these three alloys, while 1015 carbon steel provided a lower solubility than 410 stainless steel. Investigating the failure mechanisms, both metallurgical composition and lattice structure played important roles in the molten metal corrosion behaviors of these alloys. High contents of nickel combined with the influence of chromium improved the resistance to molten zinc corrosion. Moreover, a face-centered-cubic (fcc) structure was more corrosion resistant than body-centered-cubic (bcc) possibly due to the compactness of the atomic structure. Analogously, the body-centered-tetragonal (bct) martensite lattice structure possessed enhanced susceptibility to zinc corrosion as a result of the greater atomic spacing and high strain energy. Finally, an increased bath temperature played an important role in molten metal corrosion by accelerating the dissolution process and changing the nature of intermetallic layers.