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Long term corrosion of grey cast iron in marine environments

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conference contribution
posted on 2025-05-09, 12:20 authored by Robert MelchersRobert Melchers
Grey cast iron has a long history of use in major infrastructure such as bridge piers and water supply pipelines. Although no longer used for new construction, many older cast iron structures remain in satisfactory service, despite exceeding their nominal design life. Since replacement is expensive there is practical interest in the possibility of infrastructure life extension. Usually this requires information about the long-term trend of corrosion loss and pitting. Herein published data for the longer-term exposure of cast iron in marine immersion, tidal and atmospheric exposures and in fresh water immersion conditions are re-examined and it is shown that these have trends consistent with the bi-modal trend found previously for corrosion of steels. It is proposed that this similarity is intimately connected with the development of the iron-poor, corrosion-product-rich 'graphitized' zone, and its role in regulating the long-term corrosion mechanisms and the corrosion rate. These mechanisms differ from those that control the shorter-term corrosion processes. As a result, the widelyadopted power law is not appropriate.

History

Source title

Corrosion & Prevention 2012: Corrosion Management for a Sustainable World: Transport, Energy, Mining, Life Extension and Modelling

Name of conference

Corrosion & Prevention 2012

Location

Melbourne

Start date

2012-11-11

End date

2012-11-14

Publisher

Australian Corrosion Association (ACA)

Place published

Blackburn, Vic.

Language

  • en, English

College/Research Centre

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment

School

School of Engineering

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