Corrosion of Steel

Uniform Attack
• Uniform attack is the most common form of
corrosion.
• normally characterized by a chemical or
electrochemical reaction which proceeds
uniformly over the entire exposed surface or
over a large area.
• metal becomes thinner and eventually fails.
• Uniform attack, or general overall corrosion,
represents the greatest destruction of metal
on a tonnage basis.
• life of equipment can be accurately estimated
on the basis of comparatively simple tests.
• Merely immersing specimens in the fluid
involved is often sufficient.
Uniform attack can be prevented or reduced by
(1) proper materials, including coatings,
(2) inhibitors, or
(3) cathodic protection.
 Galvanic or Two-Metal Corrosion
• A potential difference usually exists between
two dissimilar metals when they are immersed
in a corrosive or conductive solution.
• If these metals are placed in contact (or
otherwise electrically connected), this
potential difference produces electron flow
between them
• electrochemical corrosion
 Crevice Corrosion
• Intense localized corrosion frequently occurs
within crevices and other shielded areas on
metal surfaces exposed to corrosives.
• usually associated with small volumes of
stagnant solution caused by holes, gasket
surfaces, lap joints, surface deposits, and
crevices under bolt and rivet heads.
• is called crevice corrosion or, sometimes,
deposit or gasket corrosion
 Caustic Embrittlement

• usually the result of steam escaping through a

crevice, such as between boiler plates or pipe
flanges.
• The escaping water, usually in a fissure of
steam, becomes highly concentrate, and the
increased alkalinity of the concentrated water
causes failure by stress corrosion
 Stress Corrosion Cracking
• results when even a very small pit forms in a
metal under stress.
• The concentrated stress may either deepen
and extend the pit, or crack any protective film
which might tend to form.
• Under continued exposure to the corrosive
medium and stress, the crack extends by
alternate corrosion and stress failure.
 Pitting
• Pitting is a form of extremely localized attack
that results in holes small or large in diameter,
but in most cases they are relatively small.
• Pits are sometimes isolated or so close together
that they look like a rough surface.
• a pit may be described as a cavity or hole with
the surface diameter about the same as or less
than the depth.
• It causes equipment to fail because of
perforation with only a small percent weight
loss of the entire structure.
• difficult to detect pits because of their small
size and as are often covered with corrosion
products.
• difficult to measure quantitatively and
compare the extent of pitting because of the
varying depths and numbers of pits that may
occur under identical conditions.
• difficult to predict by laboratory tests.
• Sometimes the pits require a long time-several
months or a year-to show up in actual service.
• Sudden failures occur
 Intergranular Corrosion
• If a metal corrodes, uniform attack results since grain
boundaries are usually only slightly more reactive than
the matrix.
• under certain conditions, grain interfaces are very
reactive and intergranular corrosion results.
• Localized attack at and adjacent to grain boundaries,
with relatively little corrosion of the grains, is
intergranular corrosion.
• The alloy disintegrates (grains fall out) and/or loses its
strength.
• caused by impurities at the grain boundaries,
enrichment of one of the alloying elements, or
depletion of one of these elements in the grain-
boundary areas.
• Small amounts of iron in aluminum, wherein the
solubility of iron is low, have been shown to segregate
in the grain boundaries and cause intergranular
corrosion.
• Depletion of chromium in the grain-boundary regions
results in intergranular corrosion of stainless steels.
• Exfoliation is sometimes described as lamellar,
layer, or stratified corrosion.
• Attack proceeds along selective subsurface
paths parallel to the surface.
• Exfoliation corrosion in an aluminum alloy
exposed to tropical marine environment.
• paint failures are caused by corrosion of
aluminium at the coating/aluminium interface
• The corrosion product that forms has a greater
volume than the volume of the parent metal.
• increased volume forces the layers apart, and
causes the metal to exfoliate or delaminate.
• Aluminum alloys are particularly susceptible
to this type of corrosion.
 Knife‐Line Attack

• is a form of intergranular corrosion of an alloy,

usually stabilized stainless steel, along a line
adjoining or in contact with a weld after heating into
the sensitization temperature range.
• The corrosive attack is restricted to extremely
narrow line adjoining the fusion line.
• Attack appears razor‐sharp (and hence the name of
"knife‐line" attack).
• It is possible to visually recognize knife‐line attack if
the lines are already formed in the along the weld.
 Intergranular Corrosion: Exfoliation

• Special form of intergranular corrosion that

proceeds laterally from the sites of initiation
along planes parallel to the surface, generally
at grain boundaries, forming corrosion
products that force metal away from the body
of the material, giving rise to a layered
appearance.
 Selective leaching
• the removal of one element from a solid alloy by
corrosion processes.
• selective removal of zinc in brass alloys
(dezincification).
• alloy systems in which aluminum; iron, cobalt,
chromium, and other elements are removed such
as dealuminumification, decobaltification, etc.
• Parting is a metallurgical term that is sometimes
applied
 Erosion Corrosion
• the acceleration or increase in rate of deterioration
or attack on a metal because of relative movement
between a corrosive fluid and the metal surface.
• this movement is quite rapid, and mechanical wear
effects or abrasion are involved.
• Metal is removed from the surface as dissolved
ions, or it forms solid corrosion products which are
mechanically swept from the metal surface.
• Erosion corrosion is by grooves, gullies, waves,
rounded holes, and valleys and usually exhibits
a directional pattern.
• failures because of erosion corrosion occur in a
relatively short time, and they are unexpected
largely because evaluation corrosion tests
were run under static conditions or because
the erosion effects not considered.
 Stress-corrosion cracking
• cracking caused by the simultaneous presence of
tensile stress and a specific corrosive medium.
• cathodic protection is an effective method for
preventing stress-corrosion cracking
• metal or alloy is unattacked over most of its
surface, while fine cracks progress through it.
• has serious consequences since it can occur at
stresses within the range of typical design stress
 Hydrogen Embrittlement and hydrogen
attack
• when atomic hydrogen, contained in chemical
and refinery processes or produced
electrolytically by the process, penetrates
onto the grain boundaries of steel producing
microcracks, blistering and loss of ductility.
• Atomic hydrogen combines into molecules,
cannot escape, resulting in blistering and
laminations.