Relativity between corrosion-induced stress and stress corrosion cracking of brass in an ammonia solution

The susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of brass in an ammonia solution with various pH values or under various applied potentials was measured at slow strain rate tests. The additive stress in the same solution was measured using two methods. The results indicate that the variation of the susceptibility to SCC with pH value or with potential is in an excellent agreement with the corrosion (passive film or dezincification layer)-induced stress. When pH ? 7, the corrosion-induced tensile stress and the susceptibility to SCC have maximum values and hardly change with increasing the pH value. However, when pH < 7, both the corrosion-induced tensile stress and the susceptibility to SCC reduce rapidly with decreasing the pH value. Both the corrosion-induced tensile stress and the susceptibility to SCC have maximum values at the open-circuit potential, decrease slightly under the anodic polarization, and reduce gradually to zero under the cathodic polarization.