• 096276 - CORROSION ENGINEERING

The course aims at describing the main corrosion problems of metals in contact with natural and industrial environments. The students will be able to make a corrosion assessment, evaluating the maximum expected corrosion rate and making a proper material selection for a specific application as a function the environmental aggressivity and operation condition. Among the several available protection techniques, cathodic protection will be described in details.

Lectures, numerical exercises and practical examples will allow the student to:

- define, for each environment, the parameters necessary to evaluate the corrosion rate

- know the possible forms of corrosion of a metal in contact with a specific environment 

- make a corrosion assessment, discussing on the possible cause of corrosion, estimating the corrosion rate

- discuss and select a proper metal or a proper protection technique for a specific application

- know the cathodic protection systems and select a proper plant for a real structure

The course is taught in the first emi-semester and it deals with the following topics.

Basic principles of corrosion (outline). Electrochemical mechanism. Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects.

Corrosion and protection of metals in natural environments (related issues: main forms of corrosion, causes of corrosion, evaluation of corrosion rate, use of corrosion prevention systems, metals most used and specific corrosion issues). Atmosphere: effect of pollutant, RH, temperature. Soil: soil composition, stray current, differential aeration, SRB. Fresh water and seawater: indexes, scaling power, hardness, conductivity. 

Corrosion and protection of metal in Oil & Gas industry. Off-shore and on-shore, oil production and transportations, CO2 corrosion, H2S corrosion, erosion-corrosion. Corrosion in industrial boiler.

Cathodic protection. Galvanic and impressed current system, anodic materials, feeding system, design and monitoring.

Basic knowledge of principles of corrosion, metallurgy and electrotechnics.

The evaluation will be carried out by a written exam.

An intermediate written exam will be scheduled at the end of the emi-semester of lessons, during the week of lesson suspension according to the official academic calendar.

The written exam consists of two open questions and two numerical exercises. Aim of the written exam is to verify the student understanding of corrosion issues of metals in real working conditions and to verify if the student is able to apply such a knowledge to perform a proper corrosion assessment, estimating the corrosion rate, evaluating the residual service life or applying cathodic protection as main preventative or protection methods.

Exam during the official dates are organised in the same way.

Only if already sufficient (>18/30), the student can improve the final score with an oral exam (optional). The oral exam will be meant to assess the capability of the student to apply the theoretical and practical concepts learned to real cases of evaluation of possible corrosion mechanism and prevention strategies. The oral exam is optional and can be sustained only after a successful written exam. With the oral a maximum increase of 3 points can be obtained. If the oral is not satisfactory the score can be reduced.