c

 

This is a form of extremely localized attack that resulting to holes in the metal.
Stainless steel alloys, as used in the material of construction of the seawater
system are more prone to this form of corrosion. It is one of the most
destructive forms of corrosion as it is always difficult to detect , measure or
predict thereby resulting in the materials failure without the slightest suspicion.
It often takes a long time to develop. As mentioned in this case, Sea Water
injection system was fitted six months ago implying that the pits must have
developed over this six months.

Pitting is also a self initiating, self propagating form of corrosion that is very
similar in mechanism to crevice corrosion. Most systems that show pitting attack
are also susceptible to crevice corrosion such as stainless steel in seawater or
ferric chloride.

As all seawater contain chlorides in varying degrees, Corrosion Tech believe that
the pits in the material are probably a result of seawater left over during the
testing of the equipment six months ago. Chloride salts have the tendency to
form strong acids (HCl) hence lowering the pH of the system to favour corrosion.

Also, as pitting corrosion if predominant in stagnant conditions, (Fontana, 1987)

it goes to validate the point that seawater was left in the equipment for this six
months and as the equipment was never used over this period, it implies that
this seawater has been stagnant all the while, thereby encouraging pitting.
Corrosion TECH believes that if the seawater injection system was put to use
immediately after its installation, it might not have failed at this short period of
time.

In steels the content of chromium and molybdenum is crucial. Molybdenum is

added to act as a good corrosion resistance and chromium to prevent crevice
corrosion in low velocity sea water. The chromium and molybdenum content
along with nitrogen content is used in the c

  
 

c, given by expression:

PREN = %Cr +3.3x %Mo + 16x %N

Thus for the metal section with grade 316L SS, the PREN is
 K ‰


 ‰ K

·  
%

And for 316 Stainless steel

PREN = K ‰

 ‰ K

= 25.6%

Theoretically the resistance of the steel to pitting increases with the increase in
value of PREN. But this is not true in this case, as grade 316 with higher PREN is
found to be the corroding alloy. High carbon content and sensitization might be
the reason for the reduced pitting resistance. PREN is merely an empirical
relation used in ranking of stainless steel grades but is not effective for practical
purposes in harsh environments.