Microstructure-sensitive modeling of pitting corrosion: Effect of the crystallographic orientation

This work presents an innovative framework for the simulation of stable pit growth that accounts for the material microstructure in the computational model to investigate its effect on pit growth behavior. While many microstructural attributes can affect corrosion kinetics, the current work focuses on the effect of the crystallographic plane orientation at the corrosion front by utilizing variations in polarization behavior with orientation in a single phase material. The current modeling results show that crystallographic orientation significantly affects local pit growth rates (even with corrosion potential variations as little as 5-10% across orientations) and the resultant tortuous shapes are similar to pits observed in experimental studies.