Chapter 1.

Corrosion as a Hazard

Corrosion as an engineering problem, cost to the economy, environmental

hazard and society liability
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Corrosion in the News
(5 May 2020)
The Humen Bridge of Hong Kong experienced
severe vortex shaking and resonance vibration in
strong wind, causing total closing down of traffic.
The cause was found to be a broken cable due
to corrosion damage. Several other cables also
showed serious corrosion damage.
https://youtu.be/HBEHPNFmFQ0

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Corrosion in the News
An explosion and fire ripped through a gasoline processing
unit at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance, California on 19
February 2015.

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Corrosion in the News
(April 29, 2015)

Ford Motor Co is recalling 591,000 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ sedans in
2013-2015 model in North America for possible broken bolts due to
corrosion. The damaged part could make steering difficult and cause crash.
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 Corrosion in
the News
(2008)

Called “corrosion mid flight

incident” in the media, this failure
is caused by corrosion of an
electronic board caused by a
leaking waste water from a
broken tubing.

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Corrosion in the News
(2011)

The Pentagon is enlisting

contractors such as Boeing Co. to
reduce its $22.9 billion annual
corrosion bill, a growing problem in
sensitive new weapons and old
warplanes kept airborne decades
beyond expectations. Never
highlighted in defence budget
documents, the yearly cost of
fighting rust and other corrosion is
almost twice as much as a new
Navy aircraft carrier. (Bloomberg)

Wiping the salt spray off is essential for

keeping the Al alloy body of the aircraft free
from pitting corrosion, which may lead to
early fatigue or other mechanical failure
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 Corrosion in
the News
(August 2, 2007)

Corrosion is the cause of

the catastrophic failure of
this Mississippi River
bridge in Minneapolis
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 Most of the road
bridges in the USA
were constructed in
the 1930s, of steel-
concrete structures.
Many are reaching
their natural lifespan
due to corrosion and
material deterioration.

A 2012 survey reported 607,380

road bridges in the USA, with an
average age of 42 years. 10% are
in deficient stages requiring
immediate assessment and
maintenance, at a cost of $20.8
billion a year. 8
Corrosion in
the News
(July, 2007)

Explosion of an underground
steam pipe in New York
– Corrosion is the cause of
the failure
9
Corrosion in
the News
(April-May, 2013)

Underground water
main burst in several
locations due to
corrosion in Perth 10
 Corrosion in
the News
(June 2008,
Apache Energy Ltd)

Apache - Varanus
Island Gas Plant
and Storage
Pipeline Incident
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13
Corrosion happens everywhere, no
matter which discipline of engineering
you are working in

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 Cost of Corrosion
http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/05sep/images/rea1.gif

Corrosion is costly to the industry

and the economy.

Direct Costs
Replacement
Corrosion prevention
Stocks of spare parts and storage
Unavoidable corrosion

For example:
• De-icing salt on roads and bridges causes corrosion to road-use
vehicles: estimated cost of $2 billion/year in USA alone.
• An estimated ~$70 billion is spent each year as the direct cost of
metal corrosion in USA. This cost is 4.2% GNP.
• Direct costs of corrosion for Australia, UK, and Japan are estimated to
be 3-4% GNP.
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The annual cost of corrosion to the US economy mounts to
$468 billion (2011), about 3.1% GDP of USA, estimated by
CC Technologies and NACE.
Corrosion will cost the US economy over $1.1 trillion in 2016.

http://www.g2mtlabs.com/corrosion/cost-of-corrosion/

http://www.corrosioncost.com/piechart.htm
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Indirect Costs
Production loss
Product loss
Efficiency loss
Over design loss
Cost for workplace safety
Insurance cost
Cost for protection of environment against corrosion pollution

For example:
• To replace a corroded pipeline in an oil refinery may cost a few million
dollars; but the shut-down of production may easily cost $20,000/hour.
• In the period of replacing a corroded boiler or condenser at a power
plant, the plant may have to spend $50,000/day to buy electricity from
somewhere else to maintain the supply to its customers.
• leaking of gas, water, oil, beer, or coolant in a car radiator ... until the
repair is done.
• contamination of product: corrosion products of tin contaminate paint or
food, lead in food, Cu in soap ...
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 Corrosion is a hazard to the
society, the economy and the
environment as well as an
engineering problem

Responsibilities of an engineer

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Corrosion and
Prevention

Materials selection

However, the problem of corrosion

can be successfully contained
through proper design and careful
maintenance.

The Chrysler Tower in New York

City is a good example of materials
utilization against corrosion. Its
stainless steel cladded top remains
intact after 80 years, with its spare
sheets still resting in the basement
unneeded.
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Corrosion and Prevention

The Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, built largely of steel in 1859, has been
successfully maintained and protected against corrosion for 150 years by means
of surface coating and cathodic protection, a testament of good engineering.

Cathodic protection

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Corrosion and Prevention
The Eiffel Tower is built of riveted (2.5 million rivets!) wrought
iron, a material that will last forever if painted regularly. Since
its construction in 1889, the tower has been painted once every
seven years. Each repainting consumes 50 tonnes of paints,
by 25 painters working for 15 months, manually only!
Surface covering
Amazed at the cost and complexity of repainting, a Dutch
corrosion expert recently made a hypothetical calculation of
cost savings had the Eiffel Tower been galvanized with zinc
and then painted, and concluded that the tower would only
need to be repainted every 25 years, saving $10 million in
maintenance costs, or 50% of the original construction cost.
http://corrosion-doctors.org/Landmarks/Eiffel.htm

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Corrosion and Prevention
Our Sydney Harbour Bridge is made of 52,800 tonnes of
high strength low alloy steels joined together by a combination
of welding and riveting with 6 million rivets. It costs $5 million in
annual maintenance!

http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roadprojects/projects/shb_
precinct/images/photo_gallery_images/not_for_the_fai
nt_hearted.jpg 22
Some projects we have conducted in
recent years with local industries

Minara Resources: Murrin Murrin Autoclaves and Settling Tanks 23

 2003 project with
Minara (mining, mineral
processing)

Ti Corrosion Within Autoclaves

3.5

2.5

1.5 0ppm
1 250ppm
500ppm
0.5
1000ppm
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
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Ti Corrosion Within HPAL Autoclaves

2001 Project with

Ingal Civil Products
(Civil Eng. Manufacturing)

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2004 project with Woodside
(oil and gas)

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 2001 project
with BP Refineries
Kwinana (petroleum)

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 2013-2016 Corrosion of Subsea Pipelines

This is a research in collaboration with Woodside Energy Ltd.,

to investigate protection strategies against interior corrosion of
subsea pipelines. It involves using life size test pieces in pilot
tests, industrial probes for corrosion monitoring, and chemical
treatment packages from the market.

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What is Corrosion?
• Corrosion of metals is the process in which metals are
converted from their elemental forms (metals) to
combined forms (compounds or minerals) through chemical or electrochemical
reactions in and with the environment.
Fe → Fe2O3
By this definition the corrosion of metals is merely the reverse process of extractive
metallurgy (e.g., Al2O3 → Al).

• Corrosion is the damage of the surface of matters caused by chemical or

electrochemical reactions with the environment.

• The phenomenon that materials are damaged by interactions with the

environment is called corrosion.
Materials: metals, polymers, ceramics, semiconductors......
Interactions: chemical, electrochemical, mechanical, physical, thermal......
Environment: electrolytic, non-electrolytic, gaseous, temperature, radiation...

Questions: Is corrosion always a problem?

Can we eliminate the problem of corrosion?
Can corrosion be made into good use? 29
Over 77 years ago in the history……
OPERATION FLASH
A daring assassination attempt was made on March 13, 1943, when Hitler flew to Smolensk in Russia to
meet with his generals to discuss the upcoming summer battles against Russia.

Top brass conspirators planned to booby-trap his plane on his way back to Germany. Major-General von
Tresckow was given the job to smuggle two packages of explosives, disguised as bottles of brandy,
aboard.

British bombs were used because German fuses made a low hissing noise and might have been
detected. As Hitler climbed aboard, a conspirator broke the fuse capsule containing acid that was to
corrode broken the fuse wire in half an hour, and handed the “bottles” to a passenger to deliver to a friend.

Nothing happened till Hitler landed safely at Rastenberg airfield 2 hours later. General von Tresckow had
to dash madly to East Prussia to exchange the incriminating bottles with the genuine article. Examining
his bomb, he discovered the problem.
“The mechanism had worked,” he reported. “The
small bottle had broken, the corrosive fluid had
consumed the wire, the striker had hit forward,
but the detonator had not fired.”

http://strangeside.com/nazis-
hitler-assassination-attempts-2/ 30
1) Corrosion is a hazard to the society, economy and the
environment as well as an engineering problem
2) Corrosion is a natural process and always happens
3) Corrosion can be effectively prevented
4) Corrosion can be made into good us to us

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