ASM Failure Analysis Case Histories: Buildings, Bridges, and Infrastructure
Failure of a Stainless Steel Holding Tank
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Published:2019
Abstract
A 5000-gal (20,000-L) hot-water holding tank fractured at a large automotive manufacturing plant. The tank was made from Type 304 austenitic stainless steel. The inner diameter of the tank displayed a macroscopic, web-like network of cracks that deceptively suggested intergranular stress-corrosion cracking. The problem, however, originated on the outside surface of the tank where a tensile stress (due to low applied stress and fabrication-induced residual stresses) accelerated the growth of numerous stress corrosion cracks that eventually broke through to the inner surface, causing leakage and ultimately failure.
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Member Sign InRonald J. Parrington, Failure of a Stainless Steel Holding Tank, ASM Failure Analysis Case Histories: Buildings, Bridges, and Infrastructure, ASM International, 2019, https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.fach.bldgs.c9001528
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