Sulfur dioxide is one of the main pollutants produced during the combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal. As the concentration level of sulfur dioxide increases, the effect it has on the low carbon steel used in structural components becomes important. The concerns have been increasing in stress corrosion cracking due to the potential for large capital losses. The investigation focuses on 1018 steel in a standard corrosive water. In order to simulate common environmental conditions, air has been chosen as a carrier gas to allow the effects caused by low oxygen and carbon dioxide to be taken into account. In addition to the time to failure data, the potential was monitored and potentiostatic tests were performed. This experimental data will allow for a better understanding and prediction of stress corrosion cracking behavior of low carbon steel under "natural" environments close to those encountered in many areas today.
The major findings are enumerated below. Increasing the concentration of sulfur dioxide increases the corrosion rate and lowers the open circuit potential. Most importantly, the samples do not stress corrosion crack in range of 0.25 to 1.0 percent sulfur dioxide.