Introduction to Atmospheric Corrosion

Test your skills with a self test.

Components exposed to the elements will inevitably experience damage due to atmospheric corrosion. The severity of the corrosion and the rate at which corrosion will take place are dependant primarily upon the properties of the surface formed electrolytes, which in turn are dependant upon factors such as the humidity and pollution levels in the atmosphere.

Assessing the corrosivity of a particular atmosphere can be relatively simple. Two methods have been developed to deal with this problem:

• The first method involves the exposure of metallic coupons to the environment and classifying the resultant corrosion, e.g. the coupon based method (CLIMAT) based on the wire on bolt ASTM standard..

• The second method involves measuring several atmospheric parameters and classifying the atmosphere according to standardized measurements, e.g. ISO specification 9223.

This module contains some examples describing CLIMAT results and some weather data estimations according to the ISO methodology for locations typical of marine and rural environments.

Information Module

• Corrosivity maps

• Mechanism

• Exposure testing

• Direct measurement

• Microenvironments

• Deicing salts

• ISO 9223

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