CORROSION ENGINEERING (MCB 4423)

UTP CORROSION WEEK 2014

Project Presentation

Corrosion Study of Outdoor Plant Hook

GROUP 5

GROUP MEMBERS
Afiq Muizzudeen bin Alias
Ahmad Fitri bin Mohamad
Alif Asyraf bin Ayub
Ammar Ariffin bin Abdul Malek
Mohd Afiq bin Mohd Saif
Muhamad Amirul Syamim bin Mad Jeli
Muhammad Ismeth Amir bin Johari

OUTLINE
Introduction
Literature Review
Research Methodology
Result & Discussion
Conclusion & Recommendation

PROJECT BACKGROUND
Corrosion

has been a major issue affecting public

infrastructure.
This

includes almost all structures, including this

outdoor plant hook situated at pocket D open

garden, situated beside block 16 and 15 in UTP
campus.

PLANT HOOK SPECIMEN

Made

of mild steel

Originally

intended for cheap decoration

substitute
Exposed

towards open environment and

weather changes, with a small man-made

stream nearby
Since

it became dull and unappealing, it

was removed from sight

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Corrosion

of the hook makes it prone to break (at

highest stress concentration at hook curve), which might

leads to unwanted accident.
Corrosion

of the hook is not aesthetically appealing,

hence denting the landscape of the campus area.

No

corrosion prevention eventually leads to the

abandonment of the infrastructure.

OBJECTIVE
1. Determine the environmental
factors affecting the corrosion
2. Inspect and assess specimen corrosion
3. Identify and discuss practical steps to
mitigate corrosion

LITERATURE REVIEW
Past Corrosion Incidents
Among

the highlighted case was in 1985, where a concrete roof of a

swimming pool collapsed only after thirteen years of lifetime, killing 12

innocent lives.
Post

analysis by the federal materials testing institute, based in

duebendorf, switzerland, and the federal materials research and testing

institute of berlin concluded that the collapse was the result of chloride
induced stress corrosion cracking (scc)[2].

LITERATURE REVIEW

9th May 1985, the concrete roof of public swimming pool

collapse only after 13 years of lifetime.
12 people got killed and 19 were injured.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The steel rods had been

pitted, causing the roof
to cave in.

The collapse was result

of stress-corrosion
cracking.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The Uster incident can be avoided by:

Better material selection

Regular inspection

METHODOLOGY
OBTAIN
SAMPLE
SAMPLE
PREPARATION
SOLUTION
PREPARATION
WEIGHT LOST
METHOD

LINEAR POLARIZATION
METHOD

EXPERIMENTAL
SETUP

ELECTROCHEMICA
L TEST

CLEANING
AND WEIGHT
MEASUREME
NT

ELECTROCHEM
ICAL
MEASUREMEN
T
RATE OF
CORROSION

METHODOLOGY

Weight Loss
Test
Linear
Polarization
(LPR)
Method

Determine the corrosion rate by measuring the

degree which coupon has been dissolved

Allow corrosion rates to be measured directly,

in real time
Corrosion by an electrochemical mechanism

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Linear Polarization (LPR) Method
i.

The graph shows the result of corrosion rate of NaCl and rain water within 24 hours.

ii. At the beginning, the rate

decrease
slightly

drastically
uneven

and

after

rate

of

hours.
iii. Final

corrosion

specimen in rainwater is
0.13 mm/yr, in NaCl is
0.16mm/yr

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Weight Loss Method

Table 1: Results of final weight after 336 hours

In each medium, the experiment is repeated with

specimen B and D for validation purpose.
Cleaning cycles is repeated in order to obtain
constant final weight.

Table 2: Percentage of weight loss for each specimen

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Weight Loss Method

weight loss (g)

W
K - corrosion rate constant
- Density of the specimen
A Area (cm2)
T - Time (hours) = 336 hours

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Weight Loss Method

The corrosion rate of the specimens

immersed in NaCl is higher than in
rainwater.

The pH of NaCl is lower compared to the

pH of rainwater.

The availability of hydrogen ions to react

with electrons at cathode also may
influenced the rate of corrosion.

CONCLUSION

The specimen is assessed by conducting Weight Loss Method and LPR

Method.

The NaCl solution acts as baseline while rainwater as actual medium.

In both tests, the corrosion rate of the specimen in baseline is higher that
in rainwater.

The difference of effects in both condition is small and not very significant.

The slight difference might due to the simplicity of the measurement

offered by the weight loss method and thus may have slight error.

RECOMMENDATION
Experiment Accuracy:
Make
No

sure LPR technique is perform in relatively clean aqueous solutions

water/oil emulsion in the solution to prevent fouling of the

electrodes
Corrosion Mitigation:
Apply

coating layer or galvanization

Corrosion Prevention:
Substitute

plant hook material with a better alternative (e.g. Iron)

Q&A