Marine and Offshore Corrosion

Book excerpt: Marine and Offshore Corrosion describes the principles of effective corrosion control treatments in marine environments, with emphasis on economic solutions to corrosion. The book explains chemical or electrochemical reaction of an alloy with its environment leading to corrosion, and mechanical loss of the metal by erosion, abrasion, or wear resulting also in corrosion. A main consideration of erosion control that the engineer should look into is the economic side. Other considerations that he should investigate are the strength of a structure, time for construction, availability of materials, and costs. The book also discusses the marine environment consisting of sea water, temperature fluctuations, dissolved gases, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, carbon dioxide, electrical conductivity, fouling. The text describes the selection of materials to be used in marine environments, surface preparation of steel before painting, the type of paint, and metallic coatings. Some of the factors in selecting coating systems are: cost and estimated life before the first scheduled maintenance, adhesion properties, moisture tolerance, elasticity, chemical resistance, impact resistance, bacterial resistance. The factors affecting maintenance include environmental conditions, quality of initial protection applied, type of structure, as well as the design and purpose of the structure. The book has been prepared for engineers and designers who are not corrosion specialists but have to deal with marine corrosion problems as part of their day-to-day professional activities. The text will also turn out to be useful for engineers with general interest in structure, building, or machinery maintenance specially those located near coastal areas.