High grade stainless steels rely on an extremely thin passive layer for their corrosion protection in saline environments. This paper examines how the corrosion behavior of three high grade stainless steels
(UNS S31254, UNS S32654 and UNS S32750) is affected when the passive layer is removed by the mechanical influence of an impinging liquid-solid jet. The effect of corrosion in enhancing the erosion
material loss has been found to be significant. In terms of alloying it would appear that even when the passive layer is not intact the stainless steels which exhibit the best corrosion resistance in static conditions also exhibit the lowest corrosion current densities under these aggressive tribo-corrosion conditions.
Keywords: corrosion, erosion, synergy, seawater, impingement, erosion-corrosion, stainless steels