Corrosion Inversion in Welded 650 MPa High-Strength Steel: Microstructure to Rust Layer Regulation in Sulfite Environments

Corrosion Inversion in Welded 650 MPa High-Strength Steel: Microstructure to Rust Layer Regulation in Sulfite Environments | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Corrosion Inversion in Welded 650 MPa High-Strength Steel: Microstructure to Rust Layer Regulation in Sulfite Environments Xinyu Wang, Chenyu Zhang, Hui Xue, Xuequn Cheng, Chao Liu, Xiaogang Li This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9375005/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This work reveals a stage-dependent reversal of corrosion susceptibility between CGHAZ and FGHAZ of welded 650 MPa high-strength low-alloy steel under wet–dry cyclic in 0.01 mol/L NaHSO 3 . In the initial bare steel stage, FGHAZ exhibits the most negative corrosion potential (-718.8 mV) and the highest corrosion current density (48.955 µA cm − 2 ) relative to both BM and CGHAZ. This is attributed to its high density of active grain boundary dissolution sites. With prolonged exposure, however, a corrosion reversal occurs. FGHAZ develops a compact, α-FeOOH rich rust layer with α/γ* of 33.5% and a polarization resistance of 3076 Ω cm 2 at 384 h. In contrast, the porous CGHAZ rust permits sustained bisulfite penetration, which suppresses α-FeOOH formation to an α/γ* of only 12.7%. This leads to a 51.1% decline in polarization resistance of CGHAZ from 192 h to 384 h. A random forest regression model ( R² = 0.9736) for predicting corrosion current identifies polarization resistance and the α/γ* ratio as the dominant predictors. These findings demonstrate that the regulation of corrosion resistance in welded high-strength steels involves a multi-dimensional correlation between microstructure and rust layer. Differences in HAZ microstructure directly govern the formation and phase evolution of the surface rust layer, which in turn determines the long-term corrosion resistance under sulfide-containing atmospheres. Physical sciences/Engineering Physical sciences/Materials science Sulfite-containing environment Grain Size Rust layer evolution Corrosion resistance Machine learning Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 20 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 20 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 18 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 15 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 13 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 13 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 10 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9375005","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":626219804,"identity":"e7393385-c363-4741-90d2-6c50deec4547","order_by":0,"name":"Xinyu Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Science and Technology Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xinyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":626219805,"identity":"c0f9a1f0-f64f-4cab-bc76-cece23d4dfcc","order_by":1,"name":"Chenyu Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Science and Technology 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In the initial bare steel stage, FGHAZ exhibits the most negative corrosion potential (-718.8 mV) and the highest corrosion current density (48.955 \u0026micro;A cm\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;2\u003c/sup\u003e) relative to both BM and CGHAZ. This is attributed to its high density of active grain boundary dissolution sites. With prolonged exposure, however, a corrosion reversal occurs. FGHAZ develops a compact, α-FeOOH rich rust layer with α/γ* of 33.5% and a polarization resistance of 3076 Ω cm\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e at 384 h. In contrast, the porous CGHAZ rust permits sustained bisulfite penetration, which suppresses α-FeOOH formation to an α/γ* of only 12.7%. This leads to a 51.1% decline in polarization resistance of CGHAZ from 192 h to 384 h. A random forest regression model (\u003cem\u003eR\u0026sup2;\u003c/em\u003e = 0.9736) for predicting corrosion current identifies polarization resistance and the α/γ* ratio as the dominant predictors. These findings demonstrate that the regulation of corrosion resistance in welded high-strength steels involves a multi-dimensional correlation between microstructure and rust layer. Differences in HAZ microstructure directly govern the formation and phase evolution of the surface rust layer, which in turn determines the long-term corrosion resistance under sulfide-containing atmospheres.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Corrosion Inversion in Welded 650 MPa High-Strength Steel: Microstructure to Rust Layer Regulation in Sulfite Environments","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-22 09:05:50","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9375005/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2026-04-20T10:31:36+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-04-20T07:37:46+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-04-18T13:59:25+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"78161859566125117372862255893456822987","date":"2026-04-16T00:08:38+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"240413483672302200967698955508461042921","date":"2026-04-15T08:59:56+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-15T05:43:17+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-04-13T11:26:40+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-04-13T05:17:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"npj Materials Degradation","date":"2026-04-10T05:40:40+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"npj-materials-degradation","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"npjmatdeg","sideBox":"Learn more about [npj Materials Degradation](http://www.nature.com/npjmatdeg/)","snPcode":"41529","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41529/3","title":"npj Materials Degradation","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"NPJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"3edd8359-30fc-4c19-b489-b4ab1d436577","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 22nd, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":66646207,"name":"Physical sciences/Engineering"},{"id":66646208,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-15T09:13:12+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-22 09:05:50","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9375005","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9375005","identity":"rs-9375005","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}