CORROSION

Section 2: Basic Corrosion Measurements

By

D.H. Lister & W.G. Cook

Department of Chemical Engineering
University of New Brunswick
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If a piece of metal:

corrodes to this:

How would we know how much corrosion had occurred?

Clearly, we need before and after measurements

but of what?

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Size?
Length, breadth and thickness before
What about after?
Volume before, volume after .. by liquid displacement .
Sensitive enough?

Mass?
Weigh before, weigh after (if piece small enough for reasonable
balance note that measuring weight losses to a fraction of
a mg in a few grams is the norm in corrosion testing).
To be of any use, a weight loss measurement has to be scaled to
the size of the specimen corrosion is a surface related
phenomenon.
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Because corrosion is a surface phenomenon, weight loss is related
to surface area (SA)

For example:
a metal coupon having a total surface area of 10 cm 2 loses 1 mg
when exposed to a particular environment for a month;

1 mg
total corrosion
10 cm 2

which should be a characteristic amount for that metal in that

environment in a month.
mg
rate 0.1 2
cm month 4
 Corrosion engineers traditionally work in units of dm 2,
thus:

mg cm 2 mg
0.1 2 100 2
10 2
10 mdm
cm month dm dm month
BUT even though mdms give reasonable numbers for
most corrosion situations, the month is a bad unit Why?

So are often used . mdd

mg
dm 2 day
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If we know the metal density, we can convert the weight
loss to penetration:
for in g/cm3:

x mg cm 3 1g dm 2 x 5
10 cm / day
dm day
2
g 1000 mg 100 cm 2

Which isnt a very practical unit.

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 However, we note that 1 cm = 104 m, thus:

x 5 cm x m day x m
10 0.1 365 36.5
day day yr yr

Another common unit for corrosion penetraion (in

the US) is the mil or milli-inch per year
(=0.001 in/year).
m z mil
z
yr 25.4 year
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NOTE: these rates are averaged over the exposure time, and are
quoted as if corrosion were constant with time it often is not

measure rate 1 = M 1 measure rate 2 = M 2

T1 T2
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Often, our bit of metal ..

after exposure, looks like this

It is covered with scale.

How would we assess corrosion under these conditions?

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Scaled (e.g., oxidized) specimens often experience a
weight gain thus, the high-temperature oxidation of
iron proceeds

4Fe + 3O2 2Fe2O3

(456)g (456 + 616)g

If we know scale composition (e.g., type of oxide) and

weight gain, we can calculate the Fe in the oxide and,
therefore, the Fe corroded.
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BUT we can rarely be sure that the scale
accounts exactly for the corrosion some
might fall off (spall) some might have
been deposited from the environment

NOW WHAT?

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Consider the scaling process

Weight before = Wo g
Surface area = A dm2

Exposure time = days

Find condition; weight after = W1 g

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We can only be sure that the remaining metal provides an
unequivocal reference, so

Descale

Descaled weight = W2 g
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 ( W0 W2 ) 1000 mg mg
Total corrosion 2
A 1 g dm
(divided by for rate mdd)

We also have a measure of the weight of scale

( W1 W2 ) g
scale
A dm 2
If we assume the scale is composed of Fe2O3, we can calculate
the iron in scale as
( W1 W2 )
Fein scale fraction of Fe in scale
A
( W1 W2 ) ( 4 56) 1000 mg
Fein scale
A (4 56) (6 16) 1 g 14
 ( W1 W2 ) mg
Fein scale 700
A dm 2

The difference between iron in scale and total

amount corroded is either
Iron released to environment OR
Iron deposited from environment

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How do we descale?

Chemically or electrochemically usually in weak acids.

BUT such descaling can also dissolve some of the remaining

metal, so how do we account for this?

employ an inhibitor
use a blank

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A blank is a bare specimen put into the descaling solution along with the
specimen;

during the descaling, if the blank corrodes by:

Wb mg
weight loss of blank 1000 2
A b dm
we apply this blank correction to the specimen measurement

DRAWBACKS? DISCUSS

EXAMPLE.

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Note: such corrosion measurements and units are useful for general
or uniform corrosion but they dont work for localized corrosion
(e.g. pitting or cracking). A component can fail by stress corrosion
cracking (SCC) with no detectable weight loss

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 For these situations, we use concepts such as crack
propagation rate or pit propagation rate.

For example:
percent through-wall for tubes, pipes, vessels, etc.;

crack depth or pit depth usually in mil or mm;

m mm
propagation rate , etc.
year year

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 Examples of Corrosion
General corrosion .

General corrosion of the reactor vessel head of the Davis-Besse PWR.

(note: this exterior general corrosion was indicative of a much more
serious local corrosion problem due to a leak in the pressure boundary) 20
 Classic crevice corrosion.
In this case caused by a
carbon rubber exhaust
flapper clamped onto a
stainless exhaust flange
plate. Notice that the
worst corrosion is where
the clamp pressed the
rubber the tightest.

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Stress Corrosion

Stress corrosion of stainless steel type 304 autoclave. (Mallinckrodt Chemical Works)

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 How would you measure (estimate) the corrosion of
plant components?
For example:
pressure vessels or pressure tubes;
feeder pipes
steam generator tubes;
feedwater pipes and heaters;
etc.

DISCUSS

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 Methods involve
Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) or
Non-Destructive Testing (NDT)

and include
Ultrasonic Testing (UT);
Eddy Current;
Acoustic Emission;
etc.

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Some useful conversion factors:

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