Page 1 of 13

Koya University
Faculty of Engineering
Petroleum Engineering Department
3rd stage 2016/2017

Corrosion Engineering

By: Mr. Ribwar K. Abdulrahman,

Msc. Petroleum Engineering/ Natural Gas, The UK

Topic 5: Forms of Corrosion

Page 1 of 13
Page 2 of 13

Forms of Corrosion
Different Forms of Corrosion Classified on the Basis of Appearance:
Assumed that:
1) Electrochemical corrosion is the only mechanism.
2) Anodic and cathodic reactions take place all over the electrode surface, but not together at the same place.
3) There are no significant macroscopic concentration differences in the electrolyte along the metal surface,
and the metal is fairly homogeneous.

These three assumptions lead to uniform (general) corrosion. But this is only one of several corrosion forms
that occur under different conditions.
The other forms of corrosion depend on the deviations from the mentioned assumptions. Such
deviations may be due to:
a) The design (the macro–geometry of the metal surfaces).
b) The combination of metal and environment.
c) The state of the surface (particularly cleanliness and roughness).

These conditions will cause various deviations in the geometry and appearance of the attack compared with
uniform corrosion, and it is convenient to classify corrosion just after the appearance of the corroded
surface. The advantage of such a classification is that a corrosion failure can be identified as a certain
corrosion form by visual inspection, either by the naked eye or possibly by a magnifying glass or
microscope. Since each form of corrosion has its characteristic causes, important steps to a complete
diagnosis of failure can often be taken after a simple visual inspection.

On this basis, the following corrosion forms can be defined:

1. Uniform (general) corrosion.
2. Galvanic (two–metal) corrosion.
3. Thermogalvanic corrosion.
4. Crevice corrosion (including deposit corrosion).
5. Pitting, pitting corrosion.
6. Selective attack, selective leaching (de–alloying).
7. Intergranular corrosion (including exfoliation).
8. Erosion corrosion.
9. Cavitation corrosion.
10. Fretting corrosion.
11. Stress corrosion cracking.
12. Corrosion fatigue.

A simple illustration of the various forms of corrosion is shown in below Figure:

Page 2 of 13
Page 3 of 13

Figure 1: Main forms of corrosion grouped by their ease of recognition.

Uniform (General) Corrosion

By definition, attacks of this type are quite equally distributed over the surface, and consequently it leads to
a relatively uniform thickness reduction (Figure 2). Homogeneous materials without a significant
passivation tendency in the actual environment are liable to this form of corrosion.

Figure 2: Uniform (General) Corrosion.

Uniform corrosion is assumed to be the most common form of corrosion and particularly responsible for
most of the material loss. Traditionally, however, it is not recognized as a dangerous form of corrosion,
because:
1. Prediction of thickness reduction rate can be done by means of simple tests. Corresponding corrosion
allowance can be added, taking into account strength requirements and lifetime.
2. Available protection methods are usually so efficient that the corrosion rate is reduced to an acceptable
level. Actual methods are application of coatings, cathodic protection or possibly change of environment or
material.

Page 3 of 13
Page 4 of 13

2- Galvanic Corrosion

When a metallic contact is made between a more noble metal and a less noble one, the corrosion rate will
increase on the latter and decrease on the former. A necessary condition is that there is also an electrolytic
connection between the metals. The series of standard reversible potentials of the various metals are
now and then used to explain and estimate the risk of galvanic corrosion.

Galvanic corrosion (Bimetallic corrosion) occurs when two metals, with different potentials, are in electrical
contact while immersed in an electrically conducting corrosive liquid, Because the metals have different
natural potentials in the liquid, a current will flow from the anode (more electronegative) metal to the
cathode (more electropositive), which will in cease the corrosion on the anode.

Example 1: Copper accelerates corrosion considerably on unalloyed steel and even more on aluminium
alloys in seawater because Cu is a more efficient cathode than steel and particularly aluminium.
Example 2: For copper alloys in contact with stainless steel in seawater, the galvanic coupling may give an
increase in the corrosion rate on copper by a factor of 4–8 . (In this case, stainless steel is the most efficient
cathode).

Figure 3: Galvanic corrosion.

Figure 4: An example on Galvanic corrosion.

Page 4 of 13
Page 5 of 13

- Prevention of Galvanic Corrosion

Galvanic corrosion can be prevented or made harmless in several ways:
1. Selecting adequate materials.
2. Using weld consumables that make the weld metal more noble than the base material.
3. Avoiding the combination of a large area of an old material .

4. Using favourable area ratios between more and less noble materials.
5. Insulating the parts of the couple from each other. Here, the use of “insulation materials”.

6. Applying non–metallic distance pieces (e.g. pipe extensions).

7. Using a metallic coating on one of the materials.

8. Applying cathodic protection.
9. Adding inhibitors.
10. Designing to make less noble materials easy to replace or with sufficient corrosion allowance.
11. Avoiding access of humidity to the contact region between the materials.

3- Thermogalvanic Corrosion
When a material in a corrosive environment is subject to a temperature gradient, a galvanic element may
arise, causing what we call thermo–galvanic corrosion.

Usually, the hot surface forms the anode and the cold one the cathode. Partially, this is so because the
anodic properties of the material depend on the temperature. In addition, the properties of the environment
along the metal surface will also vary due to varying temperature and varying temperature gradient normal
to the metal surface. Often this affects the cathodic reaction, which should also be taken into consideration
when such a corrosion form is analyzed.While ordinary galvanic corrosion (two-metal corrosion) can be
identified by a visual inspection alone, for thermogalvanic corrosion we need also to know a little about the
service conditions. Thermogalvanic corrosion is prevented by appropriate design and measures to avoid
uneven heating/cooling and forming of hot spots. For heat-insulated pipes and equipment is important that
the insulation is continuous. The corrosion form may under certain conditions be prevented by cathodic
protection or coatings.

Figure 5: Thermogalvanic corrosion.

4- Crevice Corrosion
Occurrence, Conditions
This is localized corrosion concentrated in crevices in which the gap is sufficiently wide for liquid to
penetrate into the crevice and sufficiently narrow for the liquid in the crevice to be stagnant. Crevice
corrosion (CC) occurs beneath flange gaskets, nail and screw heads and paint coating edges, in overlap
Page 5 of 13
Page 6 of 13

joints, between tubes and tube plates in heat exchangers etc. The same form of corrosion develops beneath
deposits of, e.g. corrosion products, dirt, sand, leaves and marine organisms, hence it is called deposit
corrosion in such cases. The most typical crevice corrosion occurs on materials that are passive
beforehand, or materials that can easily be passivated (stainless steels, aluminium, unalloyed or low alloy
steels in more or less alkaline environments etc.), when these materials are exposed to aggressive species
(e.g. chlorides) that can lead to local breakdown of the surface oxide layer.
Materials like conventional stainless steels can be heavily attacked by deposit corrosion in stagnant or
slowly flowing seawater.

- Prevention of Crevice Corrosion

Crevice corrosion can be prevented or reduced by appropriate:
1. Selection of material.
2. Design and production. Avoid as far as possible crevices and deposition.
3. Cathodic protection. The potential must be kept below the protection potential.
4. Measures for preventing deposition.
a) Inspection and cleaning during and between service periods.
b) Separation of solid material from flowing media in process plants.
c) Gravel filling around buried piping and structures.

5- Pitting Corrosion

Pitting corrosion is a localized form of corrosion by which cavities or "holes" are produced in the material.
Pitting is considered to be more dangerous than uniform corrosion damage because it is more difficult to
detect, predict and design against. Corrosion products often cover the pits. A small, narrow pit with minimal
overall metal loss can lead to the failure of an entire engineering system. Pitting corrosion, which, for
example, is almost a common denominator of all types of localized corrosion attack, may assume different
shapes. Pitting corrosion can produce pits with their mouth open (uncovered) or covered with a semi-
permeable membrane of corrosion products. Pits can be either hemispherical or cup-shaped.

Prevention

How to prevent pitting corrosion? Pitting corrosion can be prevented through:

1. Proper selection of materials with known resistance to the service environment

2. Control pH, chloride concentration and temperature.

3. Cathodic protection and/or Anodic Protection

4. Use higher alloys (ASTM G48) for increased resistance to pitting corrosion.

Page 6 of 13
Page 7 of 13

Figure 6: Different shapes of corrosion pits.

6- Intergranular Corrosion

Intergranular corrosion is sometimes also called "intercrystalline corrosion" or "interdendritic corrosion". In

the presence of tensile stress, cracking may occur along grain boundaries and this type of corrosion is
frequently called "intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC)" or simply "intergranular corrosion
cracking"."Intergranular" or 'intercrystalline" means between grains or crystals. As the name suggests, this is
a form of corrosive attack that progresses preferentially along interdendritic paths (the grain boundaries).
Positive identification of this type of corrosion usually requires microstructure examination under a
microscopy although sometimes it is visually recognizable as in the case of weld decay.

Page 7 of 13
Page 8 of 13

7- Selective Corrosion (Selective Leaching)

This form of corrosion is observed in alloys in which one element is clearly less noble than the other. The
corrosion mechanism implies that the less noble element is removed from the material. A porous material
with very low strength and ductility is the result. Regions that are selectively corroded are sometimes
covered with corrosion products or other deposits, and since the component keeps exactly the original shape,
the attacks may be difficult to discover. Serious material failure may therefore occur without warning. The
most common example of selective corrosion is dezincification of brass, in which zinc is removed from the
alloy and copper remains. After cleaning the surface, dezincification is easy to demonstrate because the Zn–
depleted regions have a characteristically red copper colour in contrast to the original yellow brass.

Figure 7: An example on Selective Corrosion.

Dezincification occurs in two forms:

a) Uniform (layer) dezincification, where the front of the selective attack moves more or less uniformly
through the material. This form is favoured by high Zn content and acidic solutions.
b) Localized (plug-type) dezincification, where the localization and form of attack are determined more or
less arbitrarily. This type occurs more often in alloys with somewhat lower Zn content and in neutral,
alkaline and slightly acidic solutions.
The liability to dezincification increases with increasing Zn content and temperature and is promoted by a
stagnant solution, porous surface layers and oxygen in the corrosive medium (but oxygen is not strictly
necessary).

Page 8 of 13
Page 9 of 13

Figure 8: a) Uniform (layer) dezincification and b) localized (plug–type) dezincification of brass.

Dezincification can be reduced or prevented by:

a) Removing oxygen from the solution.
b) Cathodic protection.
c) Appropriate selection of alloy.

8- Erosion and Abrasion Corrosion

- Characteristic Features and Occurrence

When there is a relative movement between a corrosive fluid and a metallic material immersed in it, the
material surface is in many cases exposed to mechanical wear effects leading to increased corrosion, which
we usually call erosion corrosion. The mechanism is that deposits of corrosion products, or salts precipitated
because of the corrosion process, are worn off, dissolved or prevented from being formed, so that the
material surface becomes metallically clean and therefore more active. In extreme cases, erosion corrosion
may be accompanied by pure mechanical erosion, by which solid particles in the fluid may tear out particles
from the material itself and cause plastic deformation, which may make the metal even more active. The
results of erosion corrosion are grooves or pits with a pattern determined by the flow direction and the local
flow conditions.

Reasonably, the corrosion form is typical at relatively high velocities between the material surface and the
fluid, and it is particularly intensive in cases of two-phase or multiphase flow, i.e. liquid–gas and liquid–
solid particle flow. Components often liable to erosion corrosion are propellers, pumps, turbine parts, valves,
heat exchanger tubes, nozzles, bends, and equipment exposed to liquid sputter or jets. Most sensitive
materials are those normally protected by corrosion products with inferior strength and adhesion to the
substrate, e.g. lead, copper and its alloys, steel, and under some conditions aluminium/aluminium alloys.
Stainless steel, titanium and nickel alloys are much more resistant because of a passive surface film with
high strength and adhesion. In some cases, the wear effects are more abrasive than erosive.

9- Cavitation Corrosion

This corrosion form is closely related to erosion corrosion, but the appearance of the attack differs from the
erosion corrosion attacks described in the last section. While the latter has a pattern reflecting the flow
direction, cavitation attacks are deep pits grown perpendicularly to the surface. The pits are often localized
close to each other or grown together over smaller or larger areas, making a rough, spongy surface.

Page 9 of 13
Page 10 of 13

Cavitation corrosion has a special mechanism, which is also one of the reasons that it is considered as a
separate corrosion form here. In other hand there are many authors considered this corrosion as a subgroup
of erosion corrosion.

Cavitation corrosion occurs at high flow velocities and fluid dynamic conditions causing large pressure
variations, as often is the case for water turbines, propellers, pump rotors and the external surface of wet
cylinder linings in diesel engines. Vapour bubbles formed in low-pressure zones, or at moments of low
pressure at the actual positions, collapse very rapidly when they suddenly enter a high-pressure zone or
high-pressure moment. When this happens close to the metal surface, the bubble collapse causes a
concentrated and intense impact against the metal, with the induction of high local stress and possibly local
plastic deformation of the material. Parts of any protecting film are removed. Repeated impacts may lead
to microscopic fatigue and crack formation, and subsequent removal of particles from the material itself.
During this process the material is strongly at the attacked points, and high local corrosion rates are possible.
In some cases, however, the corrosion contribution is small and the deterioration form is more correctly
called cavitation erosion.

Figure 9: Mechanism of cavitation corrosion.

10- Fretting Corrosion

Fretting corrosion refers to corrosion damage at the asperities (hardness)of contact surfaces. This damage is
induced under load and in the presence of repeated relative surface motion, as induced for example by
vibration. Pits or grooves and oxide debris characterize this damage, typically found in machinery, bolted
assemblies and ball or roller bearings. Contact surfaces exposed to vibration during transportation are
exposed to the risk of fretting corrosion.

fretting damage can occur at the interface of two highly loaded surfaces which are not designed to move
against each other. The most common type of fretting is caused by vibration. The protective film on the
metal surfaces is removed by the rubbing action and exposes fresh, active metal to the corrosive action of
the atmosphere.

Page 10 of 13
Page 11 of 13

Figure 10: An example on Fretting Corrosion Prevention.

The simplest way to avoid fretting is to ensure that contact surfaces will have no relative motion. However,
since this is often difficult or downright impossible to achieve, fretting can also be reduced through smart
material choices. Choosing materials with a lower surface roughness will reduce fretting as these materials
experience less friction, and thus less mechanical wear. Additionally, lubricants can serve to reduce friction,
inhibit oxidation, and therefore mitigate the effects of fretting. The hardness of a material must also be taken
into account when designing against fretting. As would be expected, softer materials are much more prone to
mechanical wear and therefore are not ideal choices of material when designing against fretting. It can also
be reduced by inserting a protective layer between the two moving surfaces.

11- Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC)

(Characteristic Features and Occurrence )Stress corrosion cracking can be defined as crack formation
due to simultaneous effects of static tensile stresses and corrosion. The tensile stresses may originate from
external load, centrifugal forces or temperature changes, or they may be internal stresses induced by cold
working, welding or heat treatment. The cracks are mainly formed in planes normal to the tensile stresses,
and propagate intergranularly or transgranularly, more or less branched. If they are not detected in time, they
will cause fast, unstable fracture.

Macroscopically, the crack surfaces may look brittle and discoloured, dull or darkened by oxide layers. The
initiation site may be discovered as a pit (formed by pitting or deposit corrosion) or, e.g. as a defect caused
by forming or machining. On parts in service it may, however, be difficult to discover cracks, because they
are narrow and filled or covered by corrosion products.

The factors determining the mechanisms and the course of development can be sorted into three main
groups:
1. Environmental and electrochemical factors.
2. Metallurgical factors.
3. Mechanical stress and strain.
- Prevention of SCC
Stress corrosion cracking can be prevented by affecting one or more of the determining metallurgical,
mechanical, environmental or electrochemical factors dealt with in the previous sections:
Page 11 of 13
Page 12 of 13

a) Selecting the right material.

b) Reducing the stress and stress intensity to below the threshold values. Annealing to remove residual
stresses due to welding or cold working.
c) Making the environment less aggressive by removal of oxygen, distillation or ion exchange.
d) Using cathodic protection by sacrificial anodes (in cases where the material is not liable to hydrogen
embrittlement).
e) Supplying inhibitors, particularly in less aggressive corrosion media.

12- Corrosion Fatigue

- Definition, Characteristic Features and Occurrence

Corrosion fatigue (CF) is crack formation due to varying stresses combined with corrosion. Alternatively, it
may be defined as fatigue stimulated and accelerated by corrosion. The external difference between these
two forms of deterioration is only that CF develops under varying stresses and SCC under static stresses.

The crack development can be divided into four stages:

1. Initiation
2. Crack growth stage I. 3. Crack growth stage II. 4. Fast fracture.

Figure 11:The stages of development of a fatigue fracture.

The observations dealt with above have been explained by various theories. The effect of corrosion is
mainly ascribed to three different mechanisms:
i) Formation of corrosion pits and grooves leading to stress concentrations.
ii) Mutual acceleration of corrosion and mechanical deterioration.
iii) Absorption and adsorption of species from the environment, including absorption of hydrogen and
resulting embrittlement.

Prevention of Corrosion Fatigue:

a) Moderate cathodic polarization provides adequate protection against the environmental contribution to CF

Page 12 of 13
Page 13 of 13

of ordinary structural steels, provided that the initial defects are reasonably small.
b) Reduction of the tensile stress level, e.g. by stress annealing and good design, is efficient.

c) Reliable coatings on the areas where the fatigue stresses are highest can be utilized more than has been
done (anodic coatings, e.g. Zn on steel, and organic coatings).
d) By reasonable materials selection combined with adequate design, CF
damage can be avoided or reduced.
e) Change of environment, e.g. de-aeration or use of inhibitors, is sometimes applicable. De–aeration will
not always hinder CF, but can at least in neutral waters prevent initiation of CF on steel surfaces without
surface defects.
f) Anodic protection has been shown to increase the fatigue strength of carbon steel and stainless steel in
oxidizing environments (it improves passivation).

Other types of corrosion:

1- Hydrogen damage
Hydrogen damage is a general term which refers to mechanical damage of a metal caused by the presence
of it, or interaction with, hydrogen.

2- Biological corrosion
Corrosive conditions can be developed by living microorganisms as a result of their influence on anodic and
cathodic reactions.

3- Atmospheric corrosion.

4- Corrosion of non-metallic materials

Example: Ceramic and Cement.

Page 13 of 13