Arid deserts effects on bare Carbon Steel or Corten 2

[petrocon]

How will an arid desert such as that in Southern California, effect bare carbon steel(ASTM A36) or Corten A (ASTM A 588) weathering steel?

 

[metengr]

For bare carbon steel (unprotected) maybe a layer of flash rust and for Corten, no effect.

 

[kelowna]

I have always heard that steel will not rust if humidity in the air is below 30-40%

 

[petrocon]

Thank you for your responses they are much appreciated.

 

[KENAT]

Living in SoCal Desert, not far from a couple of the big aircraft parks I can state that carbon steel does still rust though not as fast. Some of the big tanks and old corrugated buildings etc show considerable corrosion, though as suggested above if does appear to be mainly cosmetic.

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[KENAT]

Oh, and it's not arid all the time, for instance very wet last week. How much of the corrosion is tied to those occasional wetter periods I'm not sure.

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[strider6]

the corrosion rate is a function of many factors
like presence of Atmospheric contaminants (SO2, HCl, organic acids), distance from the sea...but usually the corrosion rate in a arid desert is very low for carbon steel and weathering steel

this is from a paper of NPL:

“Weathering” or “slow-rusting” low-alloy steels containing 0.2-0.3% copper with minor additions of other elements corrode at about 3 1 to ¼ the rate of plain steels.

In the driest atmospheres, e.g.at Khartoum, the rate can be as low as 0.003 mm/year.

http://www.npl.co.uk/upload/pdf/atmospheric_corrosion.pdf

this corrosion model by corrdefense is a useful tool to predict atmospheric corrosion:

http://www.corrdefense.org/Academia...nmental Corrosion Model user instructions.pdf

http://www.corrdefense.org/Academia Government and Industry/Environmental Corrosion Model.zip

http://www.corrosionist.com/corrosion_control_methods.htm

hope this help

S

Corrosion Prevention & Corrosion Control