Chloride Stress Corrosion Cracking (CSCC)
Brittle cracking of austenitic stainless steel under tensile stress in a hot chloride environment, often with no measurable loss of metal.
The failure nobody sees coming
CSCC needs three things together: tensile stress (often just residual welding stress), chlorides, and temperature above roughly 60 °C. Austenitic grades such as 304L and 316L are vulnerable; the crack branches through the wall with almost no corrosion product to warn you.
What resists it
Ferritic grades such as 444 are essentially immune. Duplex grades resist it strongly because of their ferrite content. High-nickel austenitics such as 904L and 254 SMO also resist it. This is the single most common reason a specification moves off 316L.
Related terms
Where this applies
Duplex & Super Duplex Plate, Ferritic Stainless Steel Plate & Sheet
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