An Overview of Practicability and Application of 300M Steel in the Face of Stress Corrosion Cracking Issue

Abstract

The paper highlights 300M steel as an engineering material that is
commonly used in special applications where fracture toughness,
ductility, and ultra-high strength in the 2000–2070MPa range is
required such as aircraft landing gear, airframe parts,
undercarriage components, gears, shafts, and bolts. Stress corrosion
cracking (SCC) is recapitulated as the drawback of the steel in its
service applications. The aim of the paper is to call attention to the
SCC problem and highlight the pros and cons of the existing
alleviation methods for better appreciation of the way forward. The
overview indicates interminable positive research inputs in
alleviating SCC of the steel in its service applications by; use of
coatings, heat and surface-treatments, inducement of surface
compressive stresses, design techniques, and cathodic protection. It
is however seen that SCC alleviation of the steel has not yet reached
ideal level due to some impracticability and cost implications in
using the SCC control methods in many cases, and no better
alternative material has been found for the steel. Only few research
inputs on the numerous environmental types that the steel can be in
service contact with are found in the literatures for its SCC
alleviation. Improving practicability and versatility of the existing
SCC alleviation methods and optimization of SCC-susceptibility test
information of the steel from much larger number of the
environmental types and their various levels of combinations are
deemed needful towards ideal SCC alleviation of the steel