Stress corrosion cracking in single crystals of Ag–Au alloy

Abstract Single crystals of Ag–10Au (at%) were found to be susceptible to transgranular stress corrosion cracking (TGSCC) in 1 M HClO 4 and 1 M KCl solutions. The effect of the potential and the strain rate on the stress corrosion crack propagation rate was studied. Results were compared with those obtained for the intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC) observed in polycrystalline silver–gold alloys under the same experimental conditions. The TGSCC velocity was found to change with the potential in the same way as the IGSCC velocity. Also the increase in the strain rate value led to an increase in the crack propagation rate values. For both TGSCC and IGSCC, a linear relationship between the logarithm of the crack propagation rate and the logarithm of the strain rate was found. The slope of this relationship was always higher for IGSCC than for TGSCC.