4/12/2019

Forms of
corrosion
13 TH WEEK

Content
➢ Introduction
➢ General or Uniform Attack
➢ Localized Corrosion
➢ Velocity Induced Corrosion
➢ Mechanically Assisted Corrosion

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Introduction
The main questions generally asked by most
people facing a corrosion problem are
• How serious is this problem?
• What caused the problem in the first place?
• How can it be fixed and how much will it cost?

Introduction
▪ It is convenient to classify corrosion by the
forms in which it manifests itself, the basis for
this classification being the appearance of the
corroded metal.
▪ Each form can be identified by mere visual
observation. In most cases the naked eye is
sufficient, but sometimes magnification is
helpful or required.

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Uniform Corrosion
❖ This corrosion is also called General Corrosion.
❖ This is common form of corrosion.
❖ This type of corrosion is first seen as a general
dulling of the surface and, if allowed to
continue; the surface becomes rough.

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Example of
Uniform
Corrosion

How to prevent uniform

corrosion?
Uniform corrosion or general corrosion can be
prevented through a number of methods:
❑ Use thicker materials for corrosion allowance
❑ Use paints or metallic coatings such as
plating, galvanizing or anodizing

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Localized Corrosion
❑ Pitting Corrosion
❑ Crevice Corrosion
❑ Galvanic Corrosion
❑ Intergranular Corrosion
❑ Dealloying
❑ Hydrogen Damage

Pitting Corrosion
❖ The most common type
of localized corrosion
❖ Small volumes of metal
are removed by corrosion
from certain areas on the
surface to produce pits
that may culminate in
complete perforation of a
pipe or vessel wall

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Pitting Corrosion
❖ Pitting corrosion is a corrosive attack that produces
holes or small pits in a metal.
❖ The bulk of the surface remains un-attacked.
❖ Pitting is often found in situations where resistance
against general corrosion is conferred by passive
surface films.
❖ Pitting is more dangerous than uniform corrosion
because it is more difficult to detect, predict, and
design against.
❖ A small, narrow pit can lead to the failure of an
entire engineering system.

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Pitting Corrosion
Pitting is initiate by:
❖ Localized chemical or mechanical damage to a
protective oxide film
❖ Localized damage or poor application of a
protective coating
❖ Water chemistry factors that can cause breakdown
of a passive film such as acidity, low dissolved
oxygen concentrations which tend to render a
protective oxide film less stable and high chloride
concentrations.
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Crevice Corrosion
❖ Crevice corrosion is a localized form of corrosion
usually associated with a stagnant solution on the
micro-environmental level.
❖ Such stagnant microenvironments tend to occur
in crevices (shielded areas) such as those formed
under gaskets, washers, insulation material,
fastener heads, surface deposits, disbonded
coatings, threads, lap joints and clamps.
❖ Can be between metal surfaces or non-metal
surfaces in contact with metal.

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Crevice corrosion between Rubber pads just accelerated

pipe and I-beam: the attack

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The chronology of a
crevice corrosion (1)
At time zero, the oxygen
content in the water occupying
a crevice is equal to the level of
soluble oxygen and is the same
everywhere

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The chronology of a
crevice corrosion (2)
Because of the difficult access caused by
the crevice geometry, oxygen consumed
by normal uniform corrosion is very soon
depleted in the crevice.
The corrosion reactions now specialize in
the crevice (anodic) and on the open
surface (cathodic).
The large cathodic surface (Sc) vs. anodic
surface (Sa) ratio (Sc/Sa) that forms in
these conditions is a governing factor of
the anodic (corrosion) reaction.
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The chronology of a
crevice corrosion (3)
In stage three of the crevice development a few
more accelerating factors fully develop:
▪ The metal ions produced by the anodic
corrosion reaction readily hydrolyze giving off
protons (acid) and forming corrosion products.
The pH in a crevice can reach very acidic
values, sometimes equivalent to pure acids.
▪ The acidification of the local environment can
produce a serious increase in the corrosion
rate of most metals.
▪ The corrosion products seal even further the
crevice environment.

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Galvanic Corrosion
❖Also called as “dissimilar metal corrosion”
❖Corrosion damage takes place when two
dissimilar materials are coupled in a corrosive
electrolyte.
❖In a bimetallic couple, the less noble material
becomes the anode and tends to corrode at
an accelerated rate.

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Galvanic
Series
The relative nobility
of a material can be
predicted by
measuring its
corrosion potential.
The well known
galvanic series lists
the relative nobility
of certain materials
in sea water.

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Galvanic Corrosion
For galvanic corrosion to occur, three conditions
must be present:
❖ Electrochemically dissimilar metals must be
present
❖ These metals must be in electrical contact
❖ The metals must be exposed to an electrolyte

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Galvanic Corrosion
The main factors influencing galvanic corrosion
rates:
• Potential Difference between materials
• Cathode Efficiency
• Surface areas of connected materials (area ratio)
• Electrical resistance of the connection between
the materials and of the electrolyte.

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Galvanic Corrosion
A small anode/cathode area ratio is highly undesirable.
In this case, the galvanic current is concentrated onto a small
anodic area.
Rapid thickness loss of the dissolving anode tends to occur
under these conditions.

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Galvanic Corrosion

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Intergranular Corrosion
❖The microstructure of metals and alloys is made up
of grains, dan separated by grain boundaries.
❖Intergranular corrosion is localized attack along the
grain boundaries, or immediately adjacent to grain
boundaries, while the bulk of the grains remain
largely unaffected.
❖This form of corrosion is usually associated with
chemical segregation effects (impurities have a
tendency to be enriched at grain boundaries) or
specific phases precipitated on the grain boundaries.
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Intergranular Corrosion

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Intergranular Corrosion
❖Intergranular
corrosion in
sensitized
stainless steels or
weld decay
represent
industrially
significant
examples of this
form of damage.
Fig. Severe problem in the welding of stainless
steels, when it is termed weld decay.

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Intergranular Corrosion

Intergranular corrosion of a failed aircraft component made of

7075-T6 aluminum (picture width = 500 mm)

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Intergranular corrosion
Intergranular Corrosion

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Intergranular corrosion

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Dealloying (selective leaching)

Dealloying refers to the selective removal
of one element from an alloy by corrosion
processes.
Dealloying is a corrosion process in which
one constituent of an alloy is preferentially
dissolved by the environment, leaving the
dealloyed metal weak and often porous
A common example is the dezincification of
unstabilized brass, whereby a weakened,
porous copper structure is produced.

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Selective Corrosion

Dealloying
Example

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Hydrogen Damage
❖Hydrogen Damage is the process by which various
metals, most importantly high-strength steel,
become brittle and fracture because of exposure to
hydrogen.
❖Hydrogen damage is often the result of
unintentional introduction of hydrogen into
susceptible metals during forming or finishing
operations and increases cracking in the material.

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Hydrogen Damage
Hydrogen damage can be divided into following
types
❖ Hydrogen Blistering
❖ Hydrogen embrittlement
❖ Hydrogen attack

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Hydrogen
Damage

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Hydrogen Damage

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Velocity Induced Corrosion

❖ Erosion Corrosion
❖ Cavitation
❖ Impingement

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Erosion Corrosion
❖ It is the result of relative
movement between the corrosive
fluid and metal surface
❖ All types of equipment exposed to
moving fluids are subjected to
erosion corrosion.
❖ Surface chemistry can play a role
in erosion corrosion due to
mechanochemical effects.

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Erosion Corrosion
Erosion Corrosion Examples
❑ Ship propellers
❑ Hydraulic turbines
❑ Pump impellers
❑ Diesel engine cylinder

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Erosion Corrosion

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Cavitation
Cavitation occurs when a fluid's operational pressure drops below
it's vapor pressure causing gas pockets and bubbles to form and
collapse. The locations where this is most likely to occur, such as:
▪ At the suction of a pump, especially if operating near the net
positive suction head required (NPSHR)
▪ At the discharge of a valve or regulator, especially when operating
in a near-closed position
▪ At other geometry-affected flow areas such as pipe elbows and
expansions
▪ Also, by processes incurring sudden expansion, which can lead to
dramatic pressure drop

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Cavitation Example

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Mechanically Assisted
Corrosion
❖ Stress corrosion cracking (SCC)
❖ Corrosion Fatigue
❖ Fretting Corrosion

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Stress Corrosion Cracking

(SCC)
❖ Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is the
cracking induced from the combined
influence of tensile stress and a
corrosive environment.
❖ This type of corrosion is observed in
fabricated articles which are subjected
to various mechanical operations
❖ Here mechanical operations refers
Bending, Hammering and annealing.
❖ This corrosion is usually unpredictable
in nature.

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Stress
Corrosion
Cracking
(SCC)

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Corrosion Fatigue
❖ Corrosion Fatigue is a special case of stress
corrosion caused by the combined effects
of cyclic stress and corrosion.
❖ The fatigue process is thought to cause
rupture of the protective passive film,
upon which corrosion is accelerated.
❖ Control of corrosion fatigue can be
accomplished by either lowering the cyclic
stress or by corrosion control.

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Corrosion
Fatigue

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Fretting Corrosion
❖ Fretting refers to wear and
sometimes corrosion damage at
the asperities of contact surfaces
❖ This corrosion occurs at the
interface between contacting,
highly loaded metal surfaces when
subjected to slight vibratory
motions.

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Fretting Corrosion
❖This corrosion is most common in bearing
surfaces in machinery.
❖The most common type of fretting is caused
by vibration.
❖The protective film on the metal surfaces is
removed by the rubbing action and exposes
fresh, active metal to the corrosive action of
the atmosphere.

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Fretting Corrosion

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Microbiological Corrosion
❖Caused by microbes like bacteria, algae fungi etc
❖These microbes can be aerobic or anaerobic
❖Aerobic bacteria decrease the concentration of
oxygen in the medium in contact with metal
surface.
❖The main product of corrosion in anaerobic
corrosion is iron sulphide

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Microbiological Corrosion

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