The Influence of Carbon Contents on the Corrosion Resistance of Plain-Carbon Steels in the Water Environments

Abstract

AbstractPlain-carbon steels are considered to be the most widely used materials in engineering and industrial applications. In this study wide range of carbon steels are used in the most common corrosion environments which are salt water and drinking water. The weight loss method is used, then corrosion rate is found to correlate with carbon percentage of steels. The results indicate good correlation which are related to the microstructure where higher pearlite show higher corrosion rate and pearlitic steel represents the maximum corrosion rate. This is found in both environments used where higher corrosion rate is the characteristic of salt water. It is also found that the longer exposure time the lower corrosion rate while weight loss is still continuing.Keyword: Plain-carbon steels,Carbon content, Corrosion rates, Water environments.