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CORROSION OF ALUMINUM-FIN, COPPER-TUBE HEAT EXCHANGE COILS

JAY E. FIELD, PH.D. TRANE RESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS TYLER, TX

ABSTRACT In most failures of indoor coils, however, the

Over the past several years the HVAC industry copper tubes will have been penetrated while there
has experienced a large increase in instances of leaks will be little corrosion on the aluminum fins in direct
in the central portion of aluminum-finned, copper- contact. Figure 2 shows pits in the copper tube
tube heat exchange coils. These leaks are surface and the contacting aluminum fin surfaces. In
characterized as being very small in size and very these cases the corrosion appears to be caused by a
high in numbers within a single coil. There are many direct attack of the corroding agent on the copper in
chemical species that can cause these coil leaks, spite of the presence of the ‘more sacrificial’
including chlorides from pool chemicals and clothes aluminum. Hydrogen sulfide, carbon disulfide, and
washing, sulfur from tap water, lubricants and nearby ammonia have been known for centuries to cause
industries, and ammonia compounds from cleaners or copper corrosion without the presence of a
nearby industries. However this recent increase in conductive electrolyte solution or a ‘more noble’
reported coil leaks is being attributed to a newly metal. The capability of low molecular weight
discovered class of corroding agents. These are low organic acids to directly attack copper and produce
molecular weight organic acids such as acetic acid leaks in heat exchange coils is new knowledge to the
and formic acid. HVAC industry. This is not to say that it is new to
chemistry, or that chemists in the HVAC industry
This paper gives some background information somehow lacked this important information, but that
on leak causes and then presents the diagnostic it was never understood to be a cause for actual leaks.
procedures typically used to determine these causes. In fact acetic acid has been used for centuries to treat
Results of some of these analyses are also presented. copper by mild, uniform surface attack. What is
As many of these procedures are new and often unexpected is that this attack will concentrate in
company-specific, there are no accepted industry specific places and penetrate the tube wall, rather
standard procedures to test process chemicals or than just uniformly etch the tube surface.
application contaminants for copper tube corrosion
potential. Industry supported research has begun to Leaks caused by organic acids typically appear
develop a bench test for this. as a single initiation hole that branch into several
tunnels of which only one or a few actually penetrate
the entire tube wall. As these tunnels appear similar
to those in an ant colony, they are often referred to as
CORROSION DETAILS ‘formicary’ corrosion. Figure 3 shows microscopic
Most corroding agents produce relatively images of the cross section of two copper tubes
straight tunnels through a copper tube wall. This is showing this phenomenon – one starting from the
the more common experience with outdoor heat inside and one from the outside.
exchange coils and is usually attributed to galvanic
corrosion. This occurs whenever there are dissimilar Thus for these indoor coil leaks, the corroding
metals in the presence of water containing an agents are different, and they penetrate the copper
electrolyte. Dissolved salts of chloride are the most tube by a different mechanism than typically seen
common electrolytes. Although, any soluble salt can with outdoor coil corrosion. It should be noted that
lead to galvanic corrosion, such as those containing the segregation of these two corrosion mechanisms
fluoride, bromide, iodide, sulfate, nitrate, borate, etc. between outdoor and indoor coils is not perfect. Most
When galvanic corrosion occurs, the more sacrificial instances of formicary corrosion have been reported
metal (aluminum in our coils) will preferentially for indoor coils, with far fewer reported for outdoor
corrode, and by doing so, protect the more noble coils.
metal (copper in our coils). Figure 1 shows an
outdoor condensing coil that was exposed to a CORROSION ANALYSIS PROCEDURES
severely contaminated environment. Note the copper Knowing all of this, how does one determine
tubes are intact but the aluminum fins are gone. This the cause of leak formation in these coils? There are
is the image and mechanism that most people think of probably as many different approaches to this as
when considering coil corrosion. there are people doing them. Presented here is a
collection of procedures used in the industry. The

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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order of the procedures is such that if one elected to corrosion on the upper rows and little corrosion on
use them all, performance of one test would not the bottom rows. This followed the airflow pattern
interfere with that for subsequent steps. for this coil, indicating the corroding agent was likely
1) Confirm that the coil actually has leaks and from the application environment.
pinpoint leak locations.
2) Remove fins to reveal bare tubes at leak 3) Microscopic Examination
locations. With the fins off and the tube surface exposed,
3) Examine tubes under microscope. microscopic examination is possible. If the tube in
4) Rinse coil with distilled/de-ionized water and the area of the leak is clean and no pitting is
analyze for anions. observed, it may indicate that the leak initiated from
5) Perform elemental analyses on leak sites. the inside. Slitting the tube and spreading it open
6) Try to put two-and-two together. would reveal darkened inside surfaces and pitting in
Below is a closer look at each of these procedures these cases. Most often though, the exterior will
and what can be learned from the results. resemble a lunar landscape – pockmarked with pits.
Often times these areas also show salt deposits.
1) Leak Confirmation Analyses of these deposits can sometimes reveal the
There is nothing more frustrating than trying to corrosion cause. Figure 7 shows microscope images
find leak causes on a coil that never had a leak or had of several pitted tubes. The vertical stripes are caused
one caused by a manufacturing defect. Defects in by the contact of the aluminum fins. The light-color
tube welding, and in tube processing can produce copper bands are where the fin collars touched the
leaks at any position in the coil. These kinds of copper tube. The darker gray or black bands are the
failures are suspected when only one leak is found in spaces between the fins. It is in these bands between
the coil, or found in only one U-bend. The general the fins that pitting is predominant. The edge of the
appearance of the coil can reveal candidate causes. fin collar creates a miniature crevice in which
For instance, a coil with black copper tubing and corroding agents can concentrate during drying
clean shiny aluminum has likely been attacked by cycles and thus focus their strength in one spot
sulfur. The next steps would be confirmation of creating a pit, rather than general surface corrosion.
sulfur. Figure 4 shows copper tubes with typical
black sooty appearance of sulfur attack. 4) Coil Rinsing and Anion Analysis
This step is most difficult, as the coils are large
Pinpointing the leak location(s) is important for and the water must be very pure for any real benefit.
later analyses. Leak location can provide evidence of In addition, few labs have Ion Chromatography
the corroding agent source. Figure 5 shows internal capability and many of those are not calibrated for
tube corrosion in a coil. The corrosion was only this kind of analysis. The intent is to collect and
present in the first tube in each circuit. This indicated identify the negative ions (anions) that are on the
that the corroding agent was not from the coil itself, coil. These anions include many of the active species
but from somewhere upstream. Leaks that occur in that directly attack copper, such as chloride, fluoride,
only the bottom row of the coil are likely to be bromide, iodide, sulfate, nitrate, acetate, formate, and
caused by some corroding agent in the condensate other soluble low molecular weight organic anions. It
water, if not by some physical defect. High chlorine should be noted that a coil that has been submerged
was found in the bottom row of one coil returned in tap water to confirm leaks, will not be suitable for
from a home. A little diplomatic questioning revealed this test, as this water submersion will remove some
that the homeowner had been pouring chlorine bleach of the anions of interest as well as add others
in the drain pan to kill ‘bugs’ growing in there! (chloride, fluoride, sulfate) that are commonly
present in tap water.
2) Fin Removal
This is a laborious exercise that requires a lot of The very best way to obtain a representative
persistence. The intent is to reveal the leak location in water sample for Ion Chromatography is to collect
the copper tube for further analysis. The Japanese the condensed water from the coil while in operation.
copper tubing manufacturers seem to have perfected If this cannot be done, coil rinsing is the second
a technique for an entire coil as shown in Figure 6. It choice. One problem with analysis of condensate or
works relatively well on 1-row and 2-row coils, but rinse water is in the case where there was a single
poorly on deeper coils. The steps are slitting the fins contamination event in which leaks developed but
along the tubes, twisting/tearing the fins, and finally were not discovered for a long time. The long time
pulling the fins out. The picture on the right shows after the event may be sufficient for the corroding
the typical purple to black color of formicary anion to be completely rinsed from the coil – erasing

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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the evidence. An example of this is domestic copper. The current theory on formicary corrosion
canning. Canning pickles in the summer will release includes formation of copper oxide as a necessary
high concentrations of acetic acid in the air that step.
condense on the air conditioner coil. This can lead to
formicary corrosion in the coil which will likely not 6) Putting it together
to be diagnosed until the following year, at which The first step is “Round up the usual suspects!”,
time evidence of the acetic acid is long gone. and the next step is to sort the guilty from the
innocent. It is in this last step where all of this can be
Figure 8 shows two ion chromatograms for air useful. As mentioned before, it is not likely that all of
conditioner condensate samples from two homes. In these procedures will be necessary. If the copper
Sample A the condensate contained high levels of tubing looks like it has been in a sooty fire, just skip
sulfate, and the condensate in sample 3 contained to SEM/EDX to confirm sulfur as shown in Figure
both acetate and formate indicating formicary 12, or use a wet chemical procedure for copper
corrosion. sulfide. If a likely cause of corrosion cannot be
surmised from the visual appearance of the coil, then
5) Elemental Analyses of Leak Sites start going through the steps one at a time until some
The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) has condemning evidence is obtained. The costs for the
proven to be a very valuable tool for analyzing leak first few steps are lower than those for the last steps.
sites from HVAC coils. First, detailed photographs In-house visual examinations, coil tear-down, and
can be made at very high magnification that show the microscopic examinations can be performed with
topography around the leak site. Figure 3, mentioned little expense prior to obtaining the more costly
above, shows SEM photos of tubing cross sections at outside analyses by Ion Chromatography or Scanning
200X magnification. Then using the Energy Electron Microscopy. It does happen in some cases
Dispersive X-ray (EDX) feature on the machine, the that the cause cannot be determined, but in every case
elemental content of the feature can be obtained. many potential causes can be eliminated.
Figure 9 shows an SEM image of a contaminated
tube surface and the EDX analysis of the salt on the INDUSTRY STATUS
surface. With careful sample preparation, the There are a couple conflicting theories in the
elemental composition in the bottom of a pit can also industry concerning the mechanism for formicary
be determined. Analysis of these pit contents can be corrosion. There have been many papers written on
very valuable in sorting out the responsible corroding the subject with most of these from the copper
agent when there are multiple contaminants on the producers in Japan. The Air Conditioning,
tube surface. Figure 10 is an image of a typical Refrigeration Technology Institute has initiated a
corrosion pit with the associated EDX elemental project under its 21-CR program to determine the
analysis of the bottom of that pit. Note the increase in actual mechanism involved, and from this develop a
silicon in the pit as compared with the surface bench test that produces formicary corrosion in
analysis in Figure 9. Silicic acid has been implicated copper tubes when subjected to the necessary
in some coil leak instances. corroding agents and environmental conditions.
Success in this project will give the industry the
One problem with SEM and EDX analyses is ability to assess potential corroding agents and their
that they are conducted on samples under vacuum. If sources as well as develop remedies against this form
the corroding agent is volatile – as is the case with of attack.
formicary corrosion caused by acetic or formic acid –
then the vacuum will remove most, if not all, of the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
critical evidence. Figure 11 is an EDX analysis of a Edward P. Cox, Ph.D., EPC Engineering Resources,
typical formicary corrosion pit. One would expect to Inc. for SEM and EDX Analyses.
see the elements from the acid – carbon, oxygen and Rosine N.D. Rohatgi, Ph.D., Spauschus Associates,
hydrogen. Only oxygen is found in the analysis. The Inc. for Ion Chromatography Analyses.
hydrogen cannot be detected by EDX anyway, and Kobe Copper Products, Inc. for coil tear-down.
the carbon is gone. Oxygen is present as oxides of

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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Figure 1. Outdoor Coil showing evidence of galvanic corrosion.

Figure 2. Corroded copper tube and adjacent aluminum fins.

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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Figure 3. Cross sections of copper tubes with formicary corrosion initiating from the inner wall (left) and
outer wall (right).

Figure 4. Appearance of sulfur attack on copper tubes.

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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Figure 5. Interior surface of corroded copper tube at capillary inlet end (left) of circuit and at suction
manifold end (right) of circuit.

Figure 6. Two row coil with fins cut and twisted (left) and completely removed (right). Note blue-black
color typical of formicary corrosion.

Figure 7. Microscope images of pits in copper tubing. (60X Magnification)

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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Figure 8. Ion chromatograms for condensate from two coils. One with high sulfate (top) and one with
acetate and formate (bottom).

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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Figure 9. SEM photo and EDX analysis of salt deposits on copper tube showing presence of oxides of
aluminum and copper.

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
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Figure 10. SEM photo and EDX analysis of a pit bottom in a copper tube. The analysis reveals the
presence of silicon in the pit.

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002
 ESL-HH-02-05-30

Figure 11. SEM/EDX analysis of a formicary corrosion pit showing only copper and oxygen.

Figure 12. SEM/EDX analysis of copper tubing surface showing presence of sulfur.

Proceedings of the Thirteenth Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates, Houston, TX, May 20-22, 2002