Creepy Corrosion

From Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo by David Ross, used by permission. From an image search on Flickr.

Corrosion art

http://electromagneto-studio.blogspot.com/

US Department of Defense Corrosion Defense website

The DoD Corrosion Defense (CorrDefense) Web Site is a state-of-the-art corrosion prevention and control information management and distribution e-portal sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology and Logistics (OUSD(AT&L)), Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight. The website has been designated as one of the cornerstones in the DoD's long-term strategy for corrosion prevention and mitigation detailed in 10 U.S.C. 2228, which was enacted by the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2003. CorrDefense is a free service for all individuals and organizations from Industry, Academia, and Government who have an interest in corrosion, particularly as it relates to DoD weapon systems, equipment, related commercial assets, and infrastructure.

CorrDefense.org

Cycle of Corrosion

http://www.corrosion-club.com/cycle.htm

Rectifier safety

http://employment.alberta.ca/documents/WHS/WHS-PUB-FR_2004-08-09.pdf

Nations's First B.S. Degree in Corrosion Engineering

The University of Akron will launch the nation's first baccalaureate program in corrosion engineering when the fall 2010 semester begins in August. The innovative program and its potential impact on our everyday lives and the regional economy, were highlighted in this editorial by Michael Douglas
, the Akron Beacon Journal editorial page editor, on Sunday, June 6, 2010.

For the entire article, see the University of Akron's newsroom here. For more information, see the UA Corrosion and Reliability Engineering homepage here.

Onshore Oil and Gas Industry Leads Industrial Maintenance Coatings Segment

According to the “U.S. Paint & Coatings Industry Market Analysis (2008-2013),” which was published by The American Coatings Association (ACA) and The Chemark Consulting Group, Inc., industrial maintenance coatings accounted for approximately five percent of the volume of paint sold in the U.S. and about six percent of the total value of paint sales.

U.S. Census data revealed that total industrial maintenance shipments for 2008 were 73.3 million gallons equaling $1,225.3 million. This represents a slight decrease in volume of three percent and a one percent decrease in value over 2007.

Commercial architectural is the fastest-growing end-use segment of industrial maintenance coatings. This segment also commands the highest gross profit margins, according to the report.

From Coatings World.

Onshore Oil and Gas Industry Leads Industrial Maintenance Coatings Segment

According to the “U.S. Paint & Coatings Industry Market Analysis (2008-2013),” which was published by The American Coatings Association (ACA) and The Chemark Consulting Group, Inc., industrial maintenance coatings accounted for approximately five percent of the volume of paint sold in the U.S. and about six percent of the total value of paint sales.

U.S. Census data revealed that total industrial maintenance shipments for 2008 were 73.3 million gallons equaling $1,225.3 million. This represents a slight decrease in volume of three percent and a one percent decrease in value over 2007.

Commercial architectural is the fastest-growing end-use segment of industrial maintenance coatings. This segment also commands the highest gross profit margins, according to the report.

From Coatings World.

Sticking Your Hand into Molten Lead

Making a batch of lead anodes and accidentally stick your wet hand briefly into the casting pot? You'll probably be okay, according to the MythBusters show. The Leidenfrost effect works in this case the same way you can touch a hot iron and not get burned. The good stuff starts at around 1:55.


From kottke.org, home of fine hypertext products.

Just to be clear, I am telling you not to try this yourself.

Keeping Corrosion at Bay

http://www.che.com/news/Keeping-Corrosion-at-Bay_5725.html

Given the recent focus on cost control, it’s likely that chemical processors will suffer sticker shock when they learn that industry spends $276 billion annually on corrosion prevention, monitoring and repair. Even more abrasive is the fact that this figure does not include the cost of downtime or accidents resulting from corrosion damage. However, as capital spending allowances continue to come under tighter scrutiny, asset management and sustainability become crucial, and installing the right corrosion monitoring system can help bolster these efforts, while actually controlling corrosion prevention, monitoring and repair costs.

As the economy is slow to rebound, there are two key phrases in the chemical process industries (CPI): asset management and sustainability, notes Michael McElroy, business development manager with Pepperl + Fuchs (P+F; Twinsburg, Ohio). “People are paying more attention to anything related to reliability and sustainability, especially when it concerns safety and environmental discharges. And, all of these hot-button topics are affected by corrosion,” he says. “To ensure both proper management of assets and sustainability of equipment, processors must know the condition of their piping, tanks, valves, pumps and other assets. They must know when they need maintenance to avoid shutdowns or accidents. And, corrosion monitoring is an integral part of these focus areas.”

Corrosion monitoring perks are many. They range from high-value benefits (such as accident and shutdown avoidance) to mid-range value advantages (including optimizing the life of equipment by not having extensive wear) to lower-range, but still significant, value that stems from knowing when and what kinds of maintenance are actually needed based on knowledgeable predictions (instead of replacing parts on a time-based schedule) to recognizing and maintaining the sweet spot of corrosion inhibiting chemicals.

Netherlands reactor repairs to be fixed this week

http://www.healthimaging.com/index.php?option=com_articles&view=article&id=22657:netherlands-reactor-repairs-to-be-fixed-this-week

The final welding of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten, Netherlands, will be completed this week and root cause of the deformations was galvanic corrosion, according to the Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) of the Netherlands.

The welding activities on the High Flux Reactor’s reducers have started, and three out of four corroded parts of the reducers have been welded and inspected, said NRG.

NRG has been investigating and defining the root cause of the deformations. Analyses showed that the galvanic corrosion resulted from electolytic contact between steel and aluminium, and the presence of water was the root cause of the deformations. This interaction between the steel and aluminium (galvanic corrosion) was hardly known at the time that the High Flux Reactor was designed.

“Executing this repair has been a good decision. Galvanic corrosion is a process, that will be stopped by breaking the connection between the steel and aluminium and that is exactly what we are doing now,” said Jan-Willem Rensman, material scientist of NRG.

The date of the HFR restart remains planned for the second half of August. The remaining phases of the project will be planned in detail, added NRG.




Last updated on June 11, 2010 at 8:55 am EST

http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/search?q=corrosion&type=search

Google Fast Flip is a web application that lets users discover and share news articles. It combines qualities of print and the Web, with the ability to "flip" through pages online as quickly as flipping through a magazine. It also enables users to follow friends and topics, discover new content and create their own custom magazines around searches.

Corrosion Concerns at U.S. Nuclear Reactors

In 2002, the plant, Davis-Besse, in Oak Harbor, Ohio, developed leaks in parts on the vessel head, allowing cooling water from inside the vessel, at 2,200 pounds per square inch of pressure, to leak out.

The cooling water contains boric acid, which is used to control the speed of the nuclear reaction, and the acid ate away a chunk of the steel the size of a football, leaving nothing but a thin stainless-steel liner to maintain the reactor’s integrity.

The company assumed it had solved the problem. But recently the new vessel head showed the same leakage pattern. Once again, the parts prone to leaking are nozzles through which the control rods for the reactor pass.

From the New York Times' Green blog.

Congress must work to preserve the United States' critical infrastructure

Our critical infrastructure -- from bridges to pipelines, water and sewer mains to energy generation, transmission and exploration equipment -- is in trouble. Much of this infrastructure has reached or exceeded its design life, yet we are expecting many more years of service from it. Regardless of whether it is publicly or privately owned, the common denominator in all of these infrastructure problems and, in many cases, imminent failure, is corrosion.

In a recent address, Congresswoman Betty Sutton, of the 13th District, said, "Corrosion is not a sexy topic [What? ed.]. It's not a topic that will dominate the cable news networks or garner the top headline of a major newspaper . . . until something bad happens. But it's real, and it's a major concern." No one wants to see another bridge collapse like the one in Minneapolis, whose failure was contributed to by corrosion.

From Cleveland Dealer, Letters to the Editor (Russell Schabel, Strongsville)

For more information about Congresswoman Betty Sutton's fight against corrosion, see this previous post and her site here.

MnDOT Finds Corrosion on Gusset Plates on Mississippi River Bridge

The Minnesota Department of Transportation said it found corrosion in several gusset plates in the Mississippi River Bridge at Winona. Those are the same structural components that bridge's sudden close June 3, 2008. Officials are restricting weight limits until Tuesday's repairs.

From Associated Press

Under-designed and corroded gusset plates were determined to be a major cause of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. More information about that failure at Wikipedia and the NTSB's report on the failure here (PDF, 4.2M).

Attributes of a Corrosion Engineer

In the NACE Resource Center, an article Attributes of a Corrosion Engineer lists some of the characteristics a corrosion engineer needs in order to be successful:

• Knowledge of corrosion
  
• Knowledge of corrosion resistant characteristics of materials
  
• Knowledge of corrosive characteristics of chemicals
  
• Information on physical and mechanical properties of materials
  
• Information on availability and cost
  
• Information on fabrication techniques
  
• Knowledge of special requirement of what is being produced
  
• Proficiency in planning, executing, and interpreting test programs
  
• Ability to get along with others
  
• Common sense

Norm Moriber’s hilarious article (PDF, 84k) "Out of the Norm" in November, 2001 issue of Materials Performance listed some more characteristics of a corrosion engineer, in the style of Jeff Foxworthy (i.e. "you might be a corrosion engineer if ...").

I've added a few to Norm's list:

You might be a corrosion engineer if you think the expression “watching paint dry” is misapplied to boring situations.

You might be a corrosion engineer if you can’t explain what you do for a living without 20 minutes, a PowerPoint presentation, a voltmeter and a reference electrode.

To the corrosion engineer, all matter in the universe can be placed into one of two categories:
(1) things that need to be protected against corrosion, and
(2) things that can be consumed to protect category 1.

To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
To the corrosion engineer, it needs more copper sulfate crystals.

You might be a corrosion engineer if ...

• in college you thought Spring Break could have been an environmentally-assisted cracking failure.
  
• you can type 70 words per minute with two fingers but can't read your own handwriting.
  
• you see a good design and still have to change it.
  
• you spent more on your calculator than you did on your wedding ring.
  
• you still own an analog multi-meter larger than a television set and know how to use it.
  
• you window shop at Radio Shack
  
• people groan at the party when you pick out the music.
  
• your hot water heater will last longer than you expect to live.
  
• you've already calculated how much you make per second.
  
• your idea of good interpersonal communication means getting the decimal point in the right place.
  
• you have used coat hangers and duct tape for something other than hanging coats and taping ducts.
  
• you own one or more white short-sleeve dress shirts. With a pocket. And you wear them with ties. For extra credit: with clip-on ties.
  
• you have a habit of destroying things in order to see how they work.
  
• you can remember the galvanic series potentials of forty different metals but not your anniversary.
  
• you take a cruise so you can go on a personal tour of the engine room. You make maintenance suggestions.
  
• you are offended by any of these jokes. Extra credit if you write a scathing letter to the editor. Double points if written on a typewriter.
  
• you write a follow-up to an MP article published nine years ago.

Chinese Scientists Say Cigarette Butts Protect Steel From Corrosion

Researchers found that extracts of cigarette butt water could substantially protect N80 type steel from corroding when in hydrochloric acid at 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees F). That type of steel is often used to make drill rods, which costs oil producers millions of dollars annually when they corrode.

From Cybercast News Service.

More information in the American Chemical Society's periodical Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research.

Corrosion Blog Maintenance

If you have received errors finding The Corrosion Blog at corrosionblog.com or at thecorrosionblog.blogspot.com in the last few days, I am sorry for the inconvenience. The site has been migrating to Blogger's (Google's) servers and there is some delay in submitting the changes to DNS servers and the servers updating the new location. Feel free to email me at editor@corrosionblog.com if you are having any difficulties. In the interim, the address http://www.corrosionblog.com/ should be working.

FAQ: The Science and History of Oil Spills

Interesting information about oil spills in a FAQ format at livescience.com.

Opposing Group Says Nuclear Reactor Design Has Corrosion Risks

An anti-nuclear coalition says design flaws in Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor could allow radiation leaks during an accident, and it is calling on federal authorities to suspend licensing and loan guarantees for plants that use it.

The AP1000 Oversight Group (PDF, 12k), made up of 11 environmental organizations, released a report (PDF, 4.46M) Wednesday detailing what it calls a serious safety issue that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not addressed on the AP1000 reactor.

The report contends Westinghouse designed the reactor without a corrosion-proof backup to protect against leaks from the containment vessel. In a reactor accident, the reactor’s safety systems would allow any radioactive material that had leaked over time to be released into the air and spread to nearby populated areas, the group contends.

From the Charlotte Business Journal (links added).

PHMSA Cased Pipe Workshop – April 28, 2010 - Baltimore, MD

PHMSA is holding a Workshop on the newly developed Guidelines for Integrity Assessment of Cased Pipe (PDF, 752k) at the Sheraton Inner Harbor, 300 South Charles Street, Baltimore, MD on April 28, 2010. The workshop focus will be for the public, pipeline operators, trade associations, and others to address ideas and concerns with successfully using External Corrosion Direct Assessment integrity evaluation methods and use of other technologies to assess pipelines in casings located within High Consequence Areas. The workshop is intended to discuss the PHMSA guidance "Guidelines for Integrity Assessment of Cased Pipe in Gas Transmission Pipelines" and related FAQs. The latest guidelines and FAQs are available online here.

More information on the workshop here. Register for free here.

See previous posts on casings and ECDA here and here.

Flash Rust

The SSPC/JPCL are sponsoring a free webinar on Applying Coatings over Flash Rust in a Marine Environment here. The webinar will be presented by Pete Ault of Elzly Technologies and will describe a study in which coatings were applied over varying degrees of flash rust and then inspected periodically for 6 years. The performance of coatings over light, moderate, and heavy flash rust will be presented and discussed.

Participation in the webinar is free, but for those who wish to receive continuing education credits from SSPC, a test is available after the webinar. Cost of the test service is $25. All participants, however, will receive a free certificate of completion.

Some examples of flash rust here. Flash rust can be a problem with ultra-high pressure water blasting but also with other surface preparation methods, such as sand blasting with salt contamination (such as in a marine environment).

The Corrosive Properties of Coca-Cola

1. In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl . . . Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean.
4. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
5. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
6. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
7. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
8. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan; wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
9. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FYI:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It's pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.
2. To carry Coca Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly Corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! Drink up! No joke. Think what coke and other soft drinks do to your teeth on a daily basis. A tooth will dissolve in a cup of coke in 24-48 hours.

For more discussion, see here.

p.s. Today is the first day in April

Drunk History: Nikola Tesla



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Alyeska tests clamp to repair bullet holes

From Energy Pipeline News:

ANCHORAGE - Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is planning a field exercise this year to test a hydraulically powered clamp designed to stop oil from spewing out of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline through a bullet hole. The bullet-hole exercise is planned for a site at the Chatanika River. A test piece of 48-inch mainline pipe will be placed at the scene and pressurized with water to simulate a high-pressure oil spray through a bullet hole, an exercise description says.

From Wikipedia:

On October 4, 2001, a drunken gunman named Daniel Carson Lewis shot a hole into a weld near Livengood, causing the second-largest mainline oil spill in pipeline history. Approximately 258,000 US gallons (980 m3) leaked from the pipeline; 178,000 US gallons (670 m3) were recovered and reinjected into the pipeline. Nearly 2 acres (8,100 m2) of tundra were soiled and were removed in the cleanup. The pipeline was repaired and was restarted more than 60 hours later. Lewis was found guilty in December 2002 of criminal mischief, assault, drunken driving, oil pollution, and misconduct. He was sentenced to 16 years in jail and ordered to repay the $17 million cleanup costs.

Photo from BBC.

Assessing the need for CO2 pipelines

A recent study commissioned by the INGAA Foundation focused on the pipeline infrastructure requirements for carbon capture and sequestration in connection with compliance with mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The major conclusion of the study was that, while CCS technologies are relatively well defined, there remain technological challenges in the carbon capture and sequestration phases. There are fewer technological challenges in connection with the transportation of captured carbon. The study forecasts that between 15,000 and 66,000 miles will be needed by 2030.

From pipelineandgastechnology.com.

Shale Gas

Interesting video explaining the process of shale exploration here.

Shale gas has become an increasingly more important source of natural gas in the United States over the past decade. ... Although shale gas has been produced for more than 100 years in the Appalachian Basin and the Illinois Basin of the United States, the wells were often economically marginal. Higher natural gas prices in recent years and advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal completions have made shale gas wells more profitable. Shale gas tends to cost more to produce than gas from conventional wells, because of the expense of massive hydraulic fracturing treatments required to produce shale gas, and of horizontal drilling. However, this is often offset by the low risk of shale gas wells.

From Wikipedia.

PRCI and NACE Sign a Memorandum of Understanding

Building further on a long-standing relationship between PRCI (Pipeline Research Council, Inc.) and NACE International, the two organizations have executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to foster activities that will serve their common interests in developing and disseminating technical information related to corrosion on energy pipelines. THE MOU also provides a framework for working cooperatively to advance these goals for the mutual benefit of their memberships. The MOU formalizes this important relationship with one of the primary standards development organizations that utilizes and applies PRCI's corrosion research results in developing the standards for integrity management of pipeline systems.

From the PRCI Newsletter Throughput Volume 4, Issue 1

Hoax Email - Dial Before You Dig

There is an email going around, your Corrosion Blog editor has received it three times now, called Dial Before You Dig. The email is now discussed on the extremely useful and entertaining "fact-checking" urban legends website snopes.com here. Public awareness of the dangers of third-party damage to pipelines is beneficial but spreading false tales is not. If you receive this email, I suggest that you do not forward it and reply to the sender letting them know that the email is a hoax, with the link to the snopes site (or this post).

The email contains a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow named Dial_Before_You_Dig.pps.

Dial Before You Dig
This happened in America. It’s a good reason why you should dial before you dig…… The following pictures are a result of a worker on a farm using a post hole digger - he hit an underground, high-pressure gas main. He took out 2 homes, associated sheds and vehicles. They never found the man.

The remainder of the slideshow is pictures showing the devastation of a pipeline explosion. The pictures are from an actual pipeline explosion that happened in "America", but not as the result of a man with a post hole digger. The photographs are actually from a natural gas transmission failure near Appomattox, Virginia in September 2008 caused by external corrosion. There were some minor injuries but fortunately no one was killed.

Corrosion Results in Electrocution on Navy Ship

The Navy has ordered the inspection all electrical enclosures aboard every ship in its fleet after the Nov. 28 electrocution of a sailor aboard the Rentz, a San Diego-based frigate currently deployed in the Persian Gulf. The order — issued jointly by the Virginia-based Naval Sea Systems and the San Diego-based Naval Surface Forces commands — suggests that hidden corrosion on a hinge attached to an electrical enclosure may have played a role.

From The San Diego Union-Tribune. Also, see the Navy Times.