Materials Selection for Corrosion Control

Preface: All engineers, whether concerned with design, construction, manufacturing, or maintenance, ·need a good understanding of corrosion and the role of corrosion resistance in the selection of materials of construction. Proper economic selection of the best material of construction for any given service requires knowledge of the various engineering materials available, and their interaction with their service environment This includes knowledge of their properties, availability, formability, joinability, repaiIability, and processing cost, as well as their susceptibility to corrosion under normal and abnormal environmental conditions. Also necessary is an understanding of the process of optimizing the material requirement by proper design, and familiarity with· costs of the various alternative materials and processing them. A material selected for a particular application, in addition to being able to reasonably withstand the corrosive effect of the service environment, must retain requisite strength at the temperatures and stresses involved in the application. It should also be capable of being economically formed into the exact shape and dimensions required, using suitable manufacturing processes, which should lend themselves to automation to the degree appropriate to the quantities to be manufactured. It must offer reasonably long trouble-free service, with a minimum of maintenance and down-time. In short its life-cycle cost must be economically competitive with other candidate materials.