FAILURE OF STAINLESS STEEL SS304 BRAIDED HOSE

摘要

The catastrophic failure from the corrosion of a stainless steel braided hose caused significant water damage to a domestic house and this failure was attributed to the use of a domestic cleaning agent which was likely to have been alkaline and rich in chlorine /chloride. This common type of hose construction can fail due to the continual loss of the individual 0.2mm diameter wires. The case in this work suffered this mode of failure and it is a classic example of low grade stainless steel being contaminated with an aggressive cleaning agent in an un-washed area which was regularly exposed to the high humidity of a bath room. In fact there was bold surface corrosion, crevice corrosion and very likely multimodal stress corrosion cracking (SCC) which all contributed to the failure of the hose sheath. The EPDM hose liner may have withstood the water pressure once the hose braid had failed, but this hose was compromised by voids in the hose structure, possibly from the twisting of the hose during installation. The problem could have been averted if the cleaning agent was not used, the hoses were inspected for broken wires on a regular basis and the hose was inspected for twisting during the installation.