A stereological approach for measuring the groove angles of intergranular corrosion

Non-sensitized austenitic stainless steels can be prone to intergranular corrosion when they are in contact with an oxidizing medium like nitric acid. Intergranular corrosion is characterized by the formation of grooves along the grain boundaries. The angle of these grooves is a key parameter, which directly informs of the intergranular corrosion kinetics. Most of the time, the angles of the grooves are experimentally measured on 2-dimensional cross sections of the corroded samples. This study discusses the relationship between the groove angle measured on 2-dimensional sections and the true groove angle in 3-dimensional space. This approach could also be easily extended to the study of crack angle in the domains of corrosion-fatigue, stress corrosion cracking or mechanical fracture.