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Science 18 July 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5887, pp. 382 - 385
DOI: 10.1126/science.1156211
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Reports

Observations of Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking in a Grain-Mapped Polycrystal

A. King,1,2* G. Johnson,1,2 D. Engelberg,1 W. Ludwig,2,3 J. Marrow1

Nondestructive three-dimensional mapping of grain shape, crystallographic orientation, and grain boundary geometry by diffraction contrast tomography (DCT) provides opportunities for the study of the interaction between intergranular stress corrosion cracking and microstructure. A stress corrosion crack was grown through a volume of sensitized austenitic stainless steel mapped with DCT and observed in situ by synchrotron tomography. Several sensitization-resistant crack-bridging boundaries were identified, and although they have special geometric properties, they are not the twin variant boundaries usually maximized during grain boundary engineering.

1 School of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
2 European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France.
3 Matériaux: Ingénierie et Science, Institut Nacional des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: andrew.king{at}esrf.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)