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Received: December 21, 2016; Revised: March 03, 2017; Accepted: March 07, 2017
Abstract: Many research efforts on the effect of nitrogen on the corrosion resistance of stainless steels have been reported, but little research has been conducted on the effect of nitrogen for the weldment of stainless steels by the seal-weld method. Therefore, this work focused on the determining the corrosion resistance of tube/tube sheet mock-up specimen for sea water condensers, and elucidating the effect of shielding nitrogen gas on its resistance. The pitting corrosion of autogenously welded specimen propagated preferentially along the dendritic structure. Regardless of the percent of shielding nitrogen gas, the analyzed nitrogen contents were very much lower than that of the bulk specimen. This can be arisen because the nitrogen in shielding gas may partly dissolve into the weldment, but simultaneously during the welding process, nitrogen in the alloy may escape into the atmosphere. However, the pitting resistance equivalent number (PREN) of the interdendrite area was higher than that of the dendrite arm, regardless of the shielding gas percent; and the PREN of the interdendrite area was higher than that of the base metal; the PREN of the dendrite arm was lower than that of the base metal because of the formation of (Cr, Mo) rich phases by welding.