UMIST

Corrosion and Protection Centre

Module 0 Introduction to Corrosion

Module Notes - Corrosion Management

September 2003
This document is 2002 - 2003, the Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST.

All rights reserved

Corrosion Management
Learning outcomes at the end of the course you should be able to

Give reasons for corrosion monitoring and testing (determination of corrosion rate, check on
corrosion control measures, plan maintenance, select appropriate materials, select appropriate
control measures)

Describe three methods of corrosion monitoring (coupons, electrical resistance probes, linear
polarization resistance)

Discuss the aims of corrosion management in an industrial enterprise and the approaches that
can be used

Introduction
Generally, company management is about the design and implementation of good
procedures and best practise so as to achieve an end result (selling televisions, extracting
oil, controlling corrosion) in a predictable and profitable manner. Corrosion is often not
fundamentally a technical problem and the correct solutions are well known. Corrosion
problems mainly arise because bad procedures are followed or correct procedures
ignored.

For example, a manager may take a decision to reduce or eliminate the inhibitor dosage
in a boiler in order to save costs, perhaps because the reasons for the water treatment
have been forgotten. This is likely to significantly shorten the lifetime of the boiler. As
another example, many managers frequently move in a company in order to gain
experience. If they are only in a particular job a short time there is a temptation to use the
cheapest possible corrosion control measure because, when a failure, they will have
moved on and it will be someone elses problem.

Both the above examples are where good corrosion management would save significant
long-term costs. Effective corrosion management can be considered to involve:

designing and implementing effective corrosion control procedures,

writing corrosion maintenance contracts and defining standards for the company,
keeping an updated register of the quality of a companys assets (pipelines etc.),
monitoring the continued corrosion and degradation of those assets and,
advising on safety and legislative matters relating to corrosion control (e.g. use of
environmentally hazardous inhibitors or coatings).

Good corrosion management is thus more than just about the control of corrosion
problems, saving costs and maximising profits. It is about effectively managing the assets
of an enterprise (company) in a

safe,
economic, and
predictable fashion.
2002 - 2003, Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST Module 0, Corrosion Control - Page 1
Examples of Good Corrosion Management

Electronic contacts
Electronic contacts are usually exposed to reasonably mild environments, but even very
small amounts of corrosion may have very serious effects, since films of corrosion
product can present a very high resistance. For high power contacts silver or tin coatings
or many metals such as brass can be used, as the arcing due to the switching action will
blast a conductive path through the corrosion product films. For low power signal
contacts that must make reliable, low resistance connections, very corrosion resistant
contacts are used, typically based on gold coatings, as even thin oxide films will give
poor contacts.

This is an example of one approach to corrosion management use a high cost material
when the cost of failure or replacement is more significant than the cost of the material.

Off-shore platforms
An offshore platform is a large structure that must support large loads and withstand
massive wave and tidal forces. It is very expensive to repair or repaint the structure once
it has been placed in the sea. For the submerged structure it is most common to use a low
cost weldable carbon-manganese steel. This would corrode at a rather high rate (about 1
mm per year near the surface), so the steel is protected by the application of cathodic
protection. Above the water-line the steel is painted to restrict the rate of corrosion, as
cathodic protection wont work.

This represents a second approach to corrosion management when the cost of the
material is an important part of the total cost of the system use a low cost material with
corrosion protection.

Module 0, Corrosion Control - Page 2 2002 - 2003, Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST
Corrosion disasters

Replacement of steel water tank by stainless steel

Stainless steel water storage tanks and detail of pitting corrosion

A dairy company decided to replace the steel tanks used for storing desalinated drinking
water with type 304L stainless steel, in order to eliminate corrosion problems. However,
after only one month the circumferential site welds perforated by pitting corrosion. This
was attributed to faulty welding, and the welds were repaired by re-welding. After four
months the longitudinal factory welds also perforated by pitting corrosion. Subsequent
inspection revealed that the parent plate and the piping was also pitting.

The problem was eventually attributed to sulphide (or possibly thiosulphate) in the water.
This was derived from lake water used to make up the desalinated water, together with
around 70 ppm of chloride.

Change to all-stainless steel heat exchanger

A stainless steel heat exchanger was used to evaporate liquefied natural gas from
cryogenic storage. The heating fluid was water that was heated directly with a
submerged gas-air flame. This tended to pick up chloride from impurities in the gas, and
was there moderately corrosive. The original design used carbon steel tube plates for low
cost, these suffered from corrosion (but the life was acceptable as they were thick). The
new design used all stainless steel to eliminate tube plate corrosion. However, this
design failed more rapidly by crevice corrosion between tubes and tube supports. The
original design had accidentally provided cathodic protection to the stainless steel by
connection to the carbon steel, which therefore did not corrode.

Steel in concrete
Steel is passive (is protected against corrosion by a film of oxide) in fresh concrete, even
if significant amounts of chloride are present. Calcium chloride was frequently added to
the concrete to accelerate the setting. Additionally, chloride will diffuse into concrete
from chloride-containing environments, such as seawater. Short term tests show no ill-
effect of the chloride additions to the concrete, or of chloride diffusion (since the rate of
2002 - 2003, Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST Module 0, Corrosion Control - Page 3
diffusion is slow). After long-term exposure the steel started to corrode and caused
damage to the structures.

Repair of reinforced concrete is now claimed to be a bigger business than construction of

new structures

Causes of corrosion disasters

In general these corrosion disasters result from a lack of knowledge or understanding of
the effects of design decisions.

Hence the primary weapon for good corrosion management is knowledge

knowledge of corrosion processes
knowledge of corrosion control methods
knowledge of economic implications
knowledge of sources of corrosion information
knowledge of the limits to knowledge

In this course we shall cover the knowledge that is needed for good corrosion
management, and then see how it can be applied in practical situations.

Corrosion monitoring
There are several reasons for corrosion monitoring and testing. The methods used are
broadly similar, but testing is generally applied in the laboratory whereas monitoring is
applied to a system. It is of course possible to carry out testing in an actual plant or
system. Reasons for monitoring and testing include

1. To establish the corrosion rate of a component of a system

2. To check on the application of control measures such as corrosion inhibitors
3. To plan maintenance
4. To select appropriate materials
5. To select appropriate control measures

Monitoring Methods
Monitoring methods include:

1. Weight loss methods, where the corrosion is directly measured by the loss in
weight of a sample. This is appropriate for all systems but may require a long
exposure time if the corrosion rate is low.

2. Electrochemical corrosion rate methods such as linear polarisation, ac impedance

and electrochemical noise. These require a conducting solution and so are not
appropriate for gases or for non-aqueous systems, such as almost dry
hydrocarbons.

3. Electrical resistance measurement, where the loss of metal is followed by the

increase in electrical resistance as the metal thins. This is appropriate for all
systems.

Module 0, Corrosion Control - Page 4 2002 - 2003, Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST
 4. Fluid analysis, for example the measurement of the increase in dissolved iron
levels as a fluid passes through a pipeline.

It is important that the monitoring is representative, so location of corrosion probes

should reflect the worst expected corrosion, for example at high flow rates or at areas
where water may separate.

Similar methods can be used for testing in the laboratory. Here it is important to
reproduce the actual exposure conditions as far as possible. Factors of importance include

1. Metal composition and heat treatment

2. Solution composition
3. Temperature
4. Flow rate

In general testing procedures start with comparatively simple tests, and as selection of
materials an/or control measures proceeds develop into more complex and realistic tests.

2002 - 2003, Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST Module 0, Corrosion Control - Page 5
Module 0, Corrosion Control - Page 6 2002 - 2003, Corrosion and Protection Centre, UMIST