Effect of nitrogen on the corrosion-erosion synergism in an austenitic stainless steel

► Erosion, corrosion and erosion-corrosion tests were conducted in a way that it was possible to separate the contributions of erosion, corrosion and to assess the erosion-corrosion synergism. ► Nitrogen in solid solution in austenite decreases the synergism between erosion and corrosion conferring better erosion-corrosion resistance to the austenitic stainless steel. ► The analysis of the corrosion, erosion and corrosion-erosion contributions to the total mass loss show that despite the corrosion term being very small (∼10−2) it has a huge effect on the synergism term. ► A schematic model of synergism between erosion and corrosion is proposed. The results obtained during erosion-corrosion tests of ordinary 304L austenitic stainless steel and a high nitrogen austenitic steel 304LN (0.5 wt% N) is discussed based on the proposed model.