The Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Management

Online Training Series Course Summary

COURSE C: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CORROSION MANAGEMENT

Module 5: The economics of corrosion control

Why is Carbon Steel frequently selected as a building material?

Carbon steel is used for a number of reasons:

o Because it is cheap approx. 900 dollars per tonne.
o Has very good materials properties/very well understood materials properties.
o You can get a good life from it, especially when you know that the corrosion rate is going to be uniform
across the whole metal.
o Corrosion rate is quite low so as long as we have uniform corrosion and the corrosion rate doesnt change
we can predict the life of carbon steel.
o You can extend the life and reduce the corrosion rate of carbon steel with coatings, cathodic protection,
corrosion inhibitors etc.

Why is it important to have a maintenance and inspection program in place?

Corrosion rate of carbon steel will not always be uniform across the whole metal. A maintenance and inspection
program of checking, following up, is very important so that youre checking that the remaining life is what you think
it is.

Why not use stainless steel?

Stainless steel works very well when its in an oxygen environment. It is six times the cost of carbon steel though.
There are many grades of stainless steel, all with different properties e.g. some can be welded and some cannot.
Stainless steel does not uniformly corrode. It suffers from intergranular corrosion and deep pitting is a big problem.

Are there other options?

Modern composite materials e.g. glass reinforced fiberglass, epoxy carbon fibre materials give superb performance.
However we dont have as much experience about these materials so were not always sure how theyre going to
respond to conditions.
There is sometimes resistance from engineers regarding the use of new materials easier to stick with what you
know.
Some of the newer materials can be expensive.

Can design impact corrosion?

Yes. Having the right material is only a small part of the job. The next side is to make sure that the design doesnt
make the corrosion worse.

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The Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Management
Online Training Series Course Summary

Important design considerations when thinking about corrosion

Anode to cathode ratio - If you have an anodic material in a large surface area and you have a small surface area of a
more noble metal in contact with it then the more noble metal will act as the cathode. If there is any corrosion
reactions happening the cathode will be where the electrons are consumed and that will be the demand driving the
metal into solution. If theres only a small area of cathode then it wont increase the corrosion rate of the anode e.g.
a good design is to have a steel sheet held together by copper rivets.
When youre producing materials you should try to avoid right angled joints wherever possible. Because dirt can
build up in the joint which will increase the time of wetness and increase the corrosion rate.
If youre building with angle Iron you want to avoid water retention.
You must onsider whether any rainfall could get caught designs should be free of these areas, as it will increase the
rate of corrosion.
Allow complete drainage e.g. in tanks ensure that full drainage can occur. Often the drain hole on the side is an inch
or two above the bottom, meaning there will always be liquid in the tank.
Avoid wet insulation When you have heat insulation e.g. in a chiller unit for an AC system. Corrosion under
insulation is a major problem, primarily because you cant see it.
Asset life:
o Failures at the start of an assets life are common, mainly due to construction errors.
o As you fix those errors you bed in and run in and then you have a good long life of very low or acceptable
failure rate.
o As you approach the end of the deign life the failure rate starts to increase.
o One of the most common reasons that asset life needs to be extended is extended oil recovery i.e. where a
reservoir lasts longer than it was originally designed to last.
o Increased monitoring is required to find areas before corrosion occurs. Mitigating corrosion is the key way to
extend life. These days that is using corrosion inhibitors.
o Corrosion inhibitors on the insides of pipes will give you a very good extension of life.

Important considerations regarding design planning and coatings

Coatings are always going to be a cost benefit analysis between the design life and the cost of the coating system
that you use.
You can change the life of the coating just by changing the standard at which you clean the surface of the metal. The
better you strip the old rust off the metal the longer the life you get.
The way you apply the primer, resin, and also the film thickness will change the life you get out of your structures.
Your repair strategy couples up with your coating system:
o What are you going to do about failures?
o Do you have an inspection system?
o How often do you inspect it (cost)?
o Do you have a technology where you can repair and recoat the coating? Some coatings give very good lives
but are very difficult to repair.

THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF AN ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOUND AT WWW.OILANDGASFUNDAMENTALS.COM.
IT IS FOR THE REVIEW OF COURSE PARTICIPANTS ONLY AND IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY
The Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Management
Online Training Series Course Summary

Consequences of corrosion failure / Engineering disasters

The Forth Rail Bridge opened in 1890 still has an estimated 100-year life which is what it started with. It is a
cantilever bridge and an example of classic Victorian engineering. It is still going strong even though the weight of
trains has increased beyond its original specification.

The Forth Road Bridge however was built in 1964 with a 120 design life. It is a suspension bridge, a classic beautiful
modern road bridge. By 2013 the number of vehicles going over it had to be reduced and the corrosion is so bad
that the bridge will have to be replaced by 2020.

The reason? The cable that holds the road up is corroding and they didnt take it into account when planning. They
used high tensile steel with a zinc coating but they forgot that water could get into the cable, which it did and it
caused corrosion, therefore the bridge is failing. Unfortunately this is common for suspension bridges. Losing
strength because cables are corroding and snapping.

Cutting down the cost of premature failure is a major issue in the economics of corrosion.

Corrosion fatigue cracking e.g. Aloha 243 took of from the Hawaian islands and rose to 24,000 feet where the roof
came off. The reason? Because of slow, repeated expansion and contraction as planes rise to altitude. The cabin
becomes pressurized which expands slightly. When it comes down it depressurizes and shrinks. That expansion and
shrinking over 30,000 cycles causes corrosion fatigue cracking.

Erosion corrosion is a major cause of corrosion problems in oil infrastructure. If you look at a list of the 100 worst
refinery fires you find that approximately 30% are due to erosion corrosion in wells. Common when people want to
push their flow rates to increase productivity.

MIC/Bacteria corrosion has an organic look to it. Bacterial colonies form a bio film then underneath the biofilm they
start to eat their way through the steel in a classic ring structure.

Concrete corrosion - Concrete is a very poor material in that it is very good in compressive strength but very weak in
tensile strength and so you usually make concrete structures as a composite of concrete and rebar. If the rebar is
allowed to corrode then you lose strength.
o Particularly bad in motorway bridges because of the chemicals coming from the car exhausts.

Steel structures with concrete foundations - Concrete is an electrolyte. The steel buried inside the concrete is
protected from corrosion because of the alkaline environment. But that just increases the corrosion of steel that is
not buried in the concrete. If its buried in soil then youve got an electrical connection between two pieces of metal
electrically and different environments between the steel in the soil and the steel in the concrete and the steel in
the soil will corrode. To avoid this you should bring the concrete above the grade surface so the concrete foundation
is exposed. This prevents this type of corrosion.

THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF AN ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOUND AT WWW.OILANDGASFUNDAMENTALS.COM.
IT IS FOR THE REVIEW OF COURSE PARTICIPANTS ONLY AND IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY