The role of heat treatment on the erosion-corrosion behavior of AISI 52100 steel

Based on both the polarization resistance and corrosion rate measurements, it was found that a tempering treatment gives rise to the slowest corrosion kinetics. For both the annealed and tempered specimens, where the microstrain is created solely from mechanical deformation during erosion, there is a reasonable agreement between the calculated corrosion rate based on a mechano-electrochemical effect and the experimentally measured corrosion rate. However, for the quenched specimens in which a high level of microstrain is generated on quenching, there is a significant difference between the calculated (from mechano-electrochemical effect) and experimentally measured corrosion rates.