Electrochemical noise measurements have been performed on electrodes made from the same piece of stainless steel, of type AISI 304. Potential and current noise were measured under open circuit conditions in a three-electrode system, where one of the electrodes was kept under the load and acted as a common working electrode. Two types of electrode setups were used, differing in the method of load application. In the fwst case the common electrode was in the shape of a Ubend
(under a static, undefined load), whereas in the second case the common electrode was subjected to a constan$ slowly increasing stiess (the SSRT test). The frst type of test was performed in a concentrated magnesium chloride solution at an elevated temperature. In order to detect the time when cracks initiated, the probes were dismantled daily, and examined visually using an optical microscope. SSRT tests were performed in diluted sodium thiocyanate solution with or without
additions of chlorides. Electrochemical voltage and current noise and changes of stress and elongation were measured simultaneously. During the latter part of both types of tests, significant simultaneous spikes of voltage and current noise were observed. The spikes detected during the SSRT test were correlated with drops in stress and sudden increases in elongation. After the measurements had been performed, several characteristic time series (cracking non-active and cracking
active) were subjected to spectral and chaos analysis. So far, analysis of such non-stationary signals, in particular of electrochemical systems (a U-bend exposed to a concentrated magnesium chloride solution) during uniform corrosion, cannot yet provide any satisfactory explanation of the complex mechanisms of stress-conosion cracking processes. Key words: electrochemical noise, stress-corrosion cracking, U-bend
sensitization, current and potential transients, spectral and chaos analysis specimens, SSRT tests, austenitic stainless steel