First Estimates of Nonuniform Electrolyte on Seawater Corrosion Parameters Available to Purchase

All metals corrode with exposure to electrolytes. This is a fact of life experienced by owners of marine platforms and structures throughout the world. Computational modeling methodologies have been applied to evaluate and design corrosion prevention systems. All computational work to date makes similar assumptions of a uniform electrolyte. This is a valid assumption for structures in large volumes of constantly refreshing electrolyte in which the constitutive characteristics of the electrolyte can be approximated by a uniform mixture. There is experimental evidence that this assumption is not valid for smaller volumes. The need for a more general solution which is valid in these smaller enclosed spaces is being driven by future designs that place corrosion prevention systems in these areas. The sensitivity of solutions on variations in electrolyte conductivity is unknown. In this work preliminary results are presented that demonstrate the need to take into account the spatial variation in electrolyte characteristics for small enclosed volumes of electrolyte. Two geometries (a gap between plates and a two material concentric cylinder corrosion cell) are used to demonstrate the differences between uniform and spatial varying electrolyte. Future work is outlined which will take into account more physical parameters related to electrochemical corrosion.