This present paper is aims to study the influence of cold rolling process on the microstructure and corrosion behaviors of 316L stainless steel using potentiodynamics polarization testing techniques. The steel with initial thickness of 2.0 mm was unidirectional cold rolled to 10%, 30% and 50% reduction in thickness. The corrosion behaviors of the cold rolled steels were evaluated in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) as their simulated body fluids environment. The pH and temperature of the solution was maintained at 7.31 and 37°C and took approximately 5 hours for each individual test. The microstructure observations of the steels were studied using optical microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the cold rolling process has modified the microstructure of 316L stainless steel by producing extensive surface defects. The microstructure modifications of the cold-rolled steel caused to enhance the corrosion resistance by lowering its corrosion rate to 23% and reduce the pitting resistance by lowering its breakdown potential to 61%. The pit corrosion was extensively appeared after reaching the breakdown potential.
