Effect of Flow Velocity of Sea Water on Corrosion Rate of Low Carbon Steel

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the corrosion rate of low carbon steel in saline environment. The influence of variety of conditions that represent the actual conditions in practice such as the flow velocity and solution composition, particularly Na+, Cl-and SO4-2, content were performed. Weight loss test of low carbon steel in the lab was conducted to determine the corrosion rate data in stagnant and flowing seawater for comparison to investigate the effect of flow velocity of sea water on the corrosion behavior of the low carbon steel. Results show that the corrosion rate of low carbon steel is increased by increasing the flow of seawater, but at very high velocities the corrosion rate was recorded to be decreased. XRD results show that the corrosion products contain both Fe2O3and FeO(OH).