Corrosion is more than just the rust and tarnishing that perpetually intrudes into our lives. Corrosion is a chemical or electrochemical reaction between a material, usually a metal, and its environment that produces a deterioration of the material and its properties. It is estimated to costs our global economy hundreds of billions of dollars each year to deploy useful and reasonable countermeasures to prevent or minimise corrosion. Moreover, the indirect cost corrosion is difficult to quantify and may include, plant downtime, loss of product, loss of efficiency, contamination and overdesign. There are also innumerable examples of injuries and fatal accidents caused by corrosion failures.
Were it not so insidious and ubiquitous, corrosion could be classified collectively as the greatest economic calamity known to humankind - Denny A. Jones
Corrosion may occur in many forms, including,
- uniform or general corrosion,
- pitting corrosion,
- crevice corrosion,
- galvanic corrosion,
- microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC)
- erosion-corrosion,
- intergranular corrosion,
- dealloying,
- environmentally assisted cracking, and,
- various high temperature (non-aqueous) corrosion mechanisms.
UQ Materials Performance is able to investigate the cause of any unexpected occurrence of corrosion in your assets. Click here to find out more about our investigations.
We are also able to provide materials selection advice, a predictive durability assessment, as well as remediation and maintenance recommendations, where required.