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Understanding What Corrosion Is
In this article we are going to discuss corrosion and what happens to the metal when corrosion happens. When a metal reacts with water and oxygen corrosion starts to occur. When this happen it means that the metal is loosing electrons. It can also mean that the metal is disintegrating to its original atoms because of chemical reactions because of the metals surroundings.
Some alloys can corrode just because of the air. But the alloy can also begin to corrode because of the exposure to certain substances. The corrosion can be just a crack or a whole in the metal or it can deteriorate the whole entire metal. So when you coat the metal it slows down the process and extends the life of the metal.
There are different types of corrosion and in this article we are going to discuss galvanic corrosion. When does galvanic corrosion occur? It occurs when two different metals electrically have contact with each other and then it is immersed in a type of electrolyte.
In order to get this type of corrosion there are certain things that need to happen. There needs to be an electrically conductive path and an ionically conductive path are necessary. It effects the galvanic couple when the metal is more active it corrodes at a much faster rate. The metals that are more resistant to corrosion will corrode at a retarded rate. When these metals are immersed they will not corrode as quickly without the electrically conductive connection. This happens thru a wire or thru direct contact.
Galvanic corrosion mainly happens to metals where water comes in contact with the pipes. A good example is zinc it is often used as a sacrificial anode for pipelines on docked ships. There are other things that will effect the process such as humidity, temperature, or salinity. Also the size of the anode will effect the corrosion as well. The smaller the anode is the less it is wanted. And the surface area ratio of the anode and also the cathode will directly affect the corrosion rates of the materials.
In a sea environment one of the metals will be more active than the other one. This is mainly based on the ions are bonded to the surface. There is kind of a tug of war that takes place between the metals. It takes place between the two metals that are in electrical contact and also they share the same electron gas.
The metals that are more resistant to corrosion will often take the electrons from the more active metal, and the electrolyte hosts a flow of ions in the same direction.
In knowing what cause corrosion it can help you understand how to slow the process down and save the life of your equipment.
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