EXPERIMENTAL: materials
Two different 304 SS were investigated:
- conventional AISI 304 SS
- thermomechanically treated (tt) AISI 304 SS
The materials used were heat treated at 650°C for a range of time between 30 min and 5 hours in order to provide different sensitisations.
Specimens: alloy ingots embedded in epoxy resin. The surface was abraded with wet SiC paper of decreasing grit size (up to 1200), then polished with a cloth embedded with diamond powder up to 1 mm.