High alloyed stainless steels and nickel alloys have proven their resistance to seawater in many marine,
offshore and oil and gas applications but have not been widely used in seawater plate heat exchangers in
the past. Therefore, immersion tests in artificial seawater under crevice conditions described in ASTM
G-48 D for multiple crevice washers and electrochemical studies have been performed to examine their
suitability for seawater cooled plate-type heat exchangers. The materials tested were the 6%Mo stainless
steels alloy 926 (UNS N08926) and alloy 31 (UNS N08031), as well as the nickel alloys 825 (UNS
N08825), 625 (UNS N06625), C-276 (UNS N10276) and 59 (UNS N06059). The chlorine level was set
at 3mg/L to simulate one intermittent chlorination a day and the temperature set at 50°C and 75°C. In
nonchlorinated seawater only the alloys 825 and 625 showed slight crevice attack at 75°C. In chlorinated
seawater alloy 31 was resistant at 50°C; only alloy 59 was fully resistant at both 50°C and 75°C.
From the test results it may be concluded that alloy 59 is a promising candidate material for seawater
cooled plate-type heat exchangers whereas under the conditions studied alloy 31 might be limited to
temperatures up to 50°C.