316 SS corrosion resistance

For those following my work on the corrosion of stainless steel rock anchors, I have a new short post that adds to the evidence that true 316 is resistant to attack by sulphate reducing bacteria.

https://cragchemistry.com/2023/12/16/another-srb-resistant-ss-anchor/

https://cragchemistry.com/2023/12/16/another-srb-resistant-ss-anchor/

David Reevewrote:

"let’s measure more and speculate less"

Awesome! Thank you. 

Great work, as always David.

Probably a dumb question... but do you think that it is possible, over time, for the sulphate reducing bacteria to evolve in such a way as to start attacking stainless with low martensite content?

bob steedwrote:

Great work, as always David.

Probably a dumb question... but do you think that it is possible, over time, for the sulphate reducing bacteria to evolve in such a way as to start attacking stainless with low martensite content?

I'd reckon not. The SRB provide the electrochemical environment necessary to generate hydrogen, whereas the martensite content of the steel dictates whether that hydrogen will be a problem or not. The fact that martensite has 1000x the hydrogen diffusion rate of austenite comes down to the atomic packing of the metal atoms, and is matter quite apart from the electrochemistry performed by the bacterium.

This is really cool. Thanks for sharing!