High-performance alloys pitting corrosion

Effect of velocity. The combination of low general corrosion rates and high resistance to pitting and crevice corrosion ensures that the copper-nickel alloys will perform well in quiet, clean, and aerated seawater. As the flow rate of seawater increases, the corrosion rate remains... 

A more serious drawback to the use of the type of attack method to predict service performance is the frict tiiat some materials, which are susceptible only to pitting coirosion when exposed in the absence of stress, can still be susceptible to SCC, particularly when stressed in the shoit-transverse or transverse direction. Table 2 shows that high resistance to SCC in the transverse direction of 64 mm (2 / in.) diameter rod was provided only by 7075-T351 and 2219-T87 even though all alloys tested exhibited pitting corrosion. 

In addition to the Alloy 625 of the autoclave itself, the materials or material junctures examined were nickel (Ni) 201, platinum, platinum to Hastelloy C-276 weld in Zone 3, the YSZ supports, and arc-plasma sprayed YSZ on zirconium (thermal cycling only). The nickel, YSZ supports, and YSZ coating on zirconium exhibited poor performance (high corrosion, fracture, and delamination, respectively) in Zone 1 and Zone 2. Platinum was deemed to be satisfactory in Zones 1 and 3 but exhibited corrosive attack, including pitting and the formation of a platinum-sulfur compound, at the grain boundaries in Zone 2. The platinum/Hastelloy C-276 weld was determined to be satisfactory in Zone 3. 

Materials classes that were tested included ceramics, nickel-based and cobalt-based alloys, refractory metals and alloys, reactive metals and alloys, noble metals and alloys, and high-temperature polymers, a total of 26 materials. Test periods varied between 37.5 and 47.5 hours. None of the materials was found to be suitable for all test conditions, and most exhibited moderate (equivalent to between 10 and 200 mil per year) to severe (>2()0 mil per year) corrosion. Titanium and titanium alloys (Nb/Ti and Ti-21S) exhibited the best performance, showing only slight corrosion in the presence of excess sodium hydroxide. Under acidic conditions, titanium showed increased rates of corrosion, apparently from attack by sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid. Both localized pitting and wall thinning were observed. 

As noted in Table 3 [77], the results of multiple alloy tests in seawater are correlated to the Pitting Resistance Equivalence (PRE) number [47,48,72,77], which also correlates to alloy pterformance in FeCly. Anderson [78] and Streicher [79] used MCA in seawater tests to compare alloy performance. More recently, a simple, flat, plastic (specifically, polymethylmethacrylate, which is often referred to as "perspex ) washer has been successfully used to evaluate a series of alloys in seawater [77]. One application of the ASTM G 48 test has been in simulating leaking tube-to-tube sheet joints in seawater heat exchangers and condensers [87]. When certain highly corrosion-resistant alloys were paired in a dissimilar metal crevice (DMC) with alloys that would be expected to suffer crevice corrosion in the particular test solution, the more corrosion-resistant alloy was found to corrode due to the accelerating effects of the corrosion products from the less resistant alloy. The results of DMC tests in ferric chloride were confirmed by long-term DMC exposures in seawater [82],... 

The high nickel and molybdenmn contents provide improved resistance to chloride SCC. Copper has been kept to a residual level for improved performance in seawater. The high alloy composition resists crevice corrosion and pitting in oxidizing chloride solutions. 

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