From Sept. 1993 to Sept. 1994 at seawater lab in Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, a series of simulated experiments of carbon steel (A3 steel) and low-alloy steel (l6Mn steel) in sea surface atmosphere (SSA), seawater (SW) and seabed sediment (SBS) including coarse sand, fine sand and sea mud were carried out indoor for a year or so by means of individually hanging plates (IHP) and electrically connectedly hanging plates (ECHP). The corrosion of steels in SBS is mainly due to the effect of macrogalvanic cell (oxygen concentration cell). The steel plates at the bottom of SBS, as the anode of the macrogalvanic cell, showed the heaviest corrosion, at corrosion rate of up to 0.12 mm/a, approximately equal to that of steel plates in sea surface atmosphere.
The test results showed that the corrosion rates of two kinds of steel in marine environment were in the order: SSA>SW>SBS by the IHP method, SSA>SBS>SW by the ECHP method. The corrosion rates of steels in the water / sediment interface were directly proportional to the grain-size of the SBS by the ECI-LP, but those of steels in the water / sediment interface did not vary with the grain-size of SBS by the IHP method. The corrosion rate of low-alloy steel was a little higher, instead of lower than that of carbon steel. The results of this study have important applications for design of offshore steel structures, such as oil platform, pier and port. |