Growth of cracks of steel in corrosive environments is called Stress Corrosion Cracking.
The Phenomenon stress corrosion is very dangerous for structures because it caused sudden brittle fractures.Which can lead to structure failure within a very small amount of time. Combination of Corrosion and Static Tensile Stress causes the stress corrosion cracking.This type of attack in alloys is due to the internal metallurgical structures,which is influenced by composition,heat treatment and mechanical processing.The causes of susceptibility of high tensile steels to stress corrosion are manifold. Schwier has reported that the wires which are heat treated are specially prone to this phenomenon compared to drawn wires. It the ducts of post-tensioned members are not grouted, there is a possibility of stress corrosion leading to a catastrophic/failure of the structures.
