Comparison of the effects of a sulfuric acid environment on traditionally manufactured and additive manufactured stainless steel 316L alloy

The effects on the surface and mechanical properties of stainless steel AISI316L dogbones created using either traditional manufacturing (TM) or laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) exposed to 0.75 M sulfuric acid solution over 2184 h were studied. General corrosion was not a major form of corrosion, based on surface feature changes, surface roughness, and mass loss for either method. No change to the mechanical properties occurred for the TM samples. Both tensile stress and strain decreased for the LPBF samples. The decrease was caused by hydrogen embrittlement, due to the formation of large brittle particles, as demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy.