Loading…

  Loading…

Risk Based Inspection API 580 - API 581 RBI is an often-used word in inspection.  RBI stands for Risk Based Inspection.  RBI tries to answer the following questions - 1. Which part should I expect first?  2. Which part is the most critical? 3. How should I start inspecting it first? 4. Where is the highest risk of failure?  5. Where is the order of risk? PoF is Probability of Failure . This is answered by the following questions - 1. How likely is the failure to occur? 2. How frequently will the failure occur? 3. Is there an approximate time to failure or the number of failures per time? CoF is Consequence of failure Consequence defines how dangerous the failure will be to the resources around it. This implies the following questions - 1. What kind of failure will it be? 2. Will it damage the components? 3. Will it be harmful to human life? 4. Will it affect/contaminate the environment? The risk is calculated as follows - Risk =  PoF x CoF The number designated ...

  !! Can bacteria get adapted to biocides so that every now and then it must be changed? !!    Are non-metals (particularly, composite and plastics) immune to MIC? !!   What is the likely MIC mechanism in soil environments ? Why should I ATTEND?   Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) is a unique type of corrosion with the microbes being the reason for the corrosion to occur, rather than a traditional corrosion cell. MIC is a known issue in many strategic industries such as, but not limited to pipelines, refineries, powerplants, and even PV solar panels. However, MIC is still a significant source of confusion. Hence, it is crucial to get hands-on skills and knowledge to define and cure it more effectively through more realistic prevention/mitigation integrity strategies based on general corrosion technology. What will I learn? “Six important myths currently accepted and used by industry” Electrochemistry in corrosion Relevance of electrochemistry to...

Concept Coupon test is used to gauge a material's corrosion rate in a corrosive environment. It is also used to test the efficiency of corrosion inhibitors. Parameters Material - The coupons are made from the same or similar material as that of the actual component Electrolyte - The electrolyte for exposure is the same or similar to the actual environment. Sometimes, coupons are placed in the actual environment with the component, for example in the soil with submerged pipelines. Steps Clean the coupon of any oil/grease/rust Measure the weight of original coupon - W Measure the Area of coupon to be exposed - A. Take photographs and/or optical micrographs of the coupon Immerse the coupon in the electrolyte without inhibitor Note the time of measurement - t. This is decided by the concerned parties or as per the standards followed. Take out the coupon after the time. Take photographs and/or optical micrographs of the coupon Clean the corrosion products off the coupon. DO NOT USE ROUG...

Types of MARINE corrosion The marine environment is one of the most corrosive environments.  Its corrosivity is due to the ionic concentration of the seas and oceans, temperature variations, wind velocities, depth of the sea, and biological elements. As a result, the corrosion on marine structures such as ships, FPSO, and offshore platforms, appears in multiple forms. Hence, it is important to learn about the basic types of corrosion as applicable to the marine environment. Some of these types of corrosion in a marine environment are - Uniform corrosion due to sodium, magnesium, and calcium salts Uniform corrosion is characterized by the removal of the material all over the surface. It leads to thinning of the walls. Pitting in active-passive alloys such as aluminium Active-passive alloys have a thin oxide film on the surface. A small break due to the chlorides in the seawater allows the penetration of the water and ions, leading to pit formation. Crevice corrosion in fixtures and ...

 Check out the 'QUIZZES' tab for free quizzes! New CORROSION QUIZ UP!

All of us corrosion people head out of the house to work on coatings. And yet, we leave so many types of coatings behind in our house. The most commonly seen commodity is an electric box with switches. Usually they are coated.  This is an example of such an electric box. It shows blisters formed in the white coating. Such blistering occurs when water penetrates the pores in the coating.  Usually such parts do not come under the 'critical' category. Hence, the coatings are not very thick. Moreover, there is no coating inspector involved during the application. As a result, they are prone to early degradation. However, their position plays an important role in determining this time frame. Those boxes present outside the hose are exposed to the heat and cold. Usually they will be in a shaded area. So, they may not face the rain directly. Some boxes are inside the house in rooms. Those face the least coating damage. The image above is from an electric box in a bathroom...

Practice, practice, practice... and you shall gain the certificate! So here goes a new series, where I will post quizzes on various corrosion and coating topics. This is for anyone who likes quizzes, and ESPECIALLY for those attempting exams! So here goes the first one!  Subscribe to this blog for updates!  Loading…

I am someone who loves to study. This may sound 'nerdy'. In fact, someone called me that once. I was almost 22 and even then I was OFFENDED. Hah! This is something so many of us have struggled with. In fact, just to not be a 'nerd', there are people who have simply stopped studying as much as they used to. After all 'OMG, you study so much!' is not really 'cool' after a certain age. Not anymore! I have learned that everyone is 'nerdy' in their own way, even those who pride themselves of being 'laid back' and proceed to call others 'nerds'.  So, here's to you, the sports lover. YES, I am looking at you. If you can mouth off the statistics for your favourite team, you are a nerd, only a sports one. In fact when I get hold of a magazine for corrosion, I have to take a deep breath and choose which article to read. Obviously, I want to read all the articles at once! There is so much to learn, especially in terms of scie...

When I began to conduct online courses for corrosion and coatings, I had participants who eagerly attended them. However, there were many who could not find the time due to their professional and personal commitments. On my end, I was unable to conduct sessions for more than one hour everyday due to my commitments.      As a result, I was left with a feeling that I should do something more to share corrosion with others. This led to me to starting my website.      After numerous difficulties, I was able to get it up and running.      I am pleased to announce that https://corrospective.com is LIVE!      This website is based on two main qualities -EASE and FLEXIBILITY EASE of access and learning FLEXIBILITY of time and requirements Here are a few FAQS below- What is it? It is a website with online courses available for purchase. When I access them? Once you buy a course, you can access it anytime! How do I know if it is good ...

Are you someone who really needs to talk about their corrosion issues with a third person to get a fresh perspective? Would you like to know - How the researchers look at corrosion How the industry looks at corrosion How can they help each other How to apply corrosion fundamentals How one can learn corrosion anytime anywhere Well, here's your chance! I am excited to announce a webin ar on corrosion - absolutely free! Titled " Corrosion - What art thou? " , this webinar is my attempt to get in touch with my connections and communicate my learnings about corrosion. Details of the event are as below - Date: 21st October 2021 Timing: 14:00 to 16:00 hours INDIAN STANDARD TIME Venue: Live stream on my YouTube channel! It will be livestreamed on my Youtube channel CORROSPECTIVE ! Click on the link below to see the recording -  If you have any questions to discuss, feel free to get in touch with me before 20th October! Something important...Will you get a c ertificate of attendan...

Corrosion in daily life - Steel frames Looking at LinkedIn, corrosion may feel like an extremely intricate issue seen in large industries. However, looking around, we can see corrosion everywhere! Where was this photo taken? The photo above is of a steel frame attached to a balcony.  The part shown here is the bottom part of the frame. The coatings for such steel parts usually serve the purpose of moderate corrosion protection and more of aesthetics. If you observe, the thickness of the coatings also does not seem to be a lot. Why did the coating degrade? When it rains, the rainwater collects on the bottom of the frames.  This degrades the coating. At the places where it is not perfect anyway, the underlying steel is free to corrode. Most importantly, corrosion is more severe at the edges. It is severe enough to chip off the material entirely. That point is a prime site for crack formation and breaking of the frame. Have you seen such corrosion in your balcony fram...

Need for 'CORROSION PLANNING'  The importance of material selection cannot be stressed enough. With the equipment comes the material of the equipment, and every material is prone to corrosion in some way. For most fields such as defence, oil and gas, automotive, and marine, the qualification tests for the material selection begin and stop with the mechanical properties and composition. There is not even a mention of the possible corrosion phenomena for that particular material. This results in 'surprises' when there is a serious failure. Only after that are the corrosion investigations carried out and modifications done. However, by that time, it may be too late for some. Hence, it is necessary that the concerned personnel in the industries do not cut costs where corrosion is known to be an issue. What is Corrosion Planning? It is critical to begin a "CORROSION PLANNING" to ensure that the corrosion risks of every material that is qualified, and every componen...

Corrosion is a complex subject. It is difficult to pick and choose the starting point. It is very easy to spiral into a confused state of mind if the right resources are not available. Hence, I write this blog post to list out a few books which are great if you are a corrosion enthusiast. Here goes - 1. Corrosion Engineering by Mars. G Fontana          I love this book and I always refer to it for my work. 2. Peabody's control of pipeline corrosion -  3. Corrosion engineering - Principles and practice - Pierre Roberge The website www.corrosion-doctors.org has a more extensive list of corrosion articles. Other than that, there are online corrosion magazines which you can access - 1. Materials performance -  www.materialsperformance.com 2. corrosionpedia.com 3. CORROSION journal  meridian.allenpress.com/corrosion -  it has a few open access articles. Check out these resources as a starting point!

Corrosion is a serious issue. However, corrosion engineers are rarely asked about it during the designing of components. It is only when the components fail that people remember there are people who have studied corrosion for their whole life and would provide a solution. The design problems are really quite simple, and the loss of money could have been avoided had the company bothered to involve a corrosion engineer in the first place. Let me illustrate this with an example of a factory near the sea. Suppose a mild steel pipe is fitted inside the factory to transport 1 wt. % hydrochloric acid. The engineer has a choice between selecting pipes of 5 mm and 10 mm thickness. To save money, they go for the pipe with the 5 mm thickness because it has been 'successfully used by the other customers'. Over the course of a year, it is seen that the pipe has started leaking at certain places. Further investigation reveals that those sections have thinned to half of their thickn...

Corrosion is the journey of an element from its most active form to its most stable form.  The birth At the place of its birth, inside the earth, an element such as iron comes into contact with atmospheric oxygen, chlorides, sulphate, and moisture. and is quite happy to remain in peace with them in the form of Fe 2 O 3 , Fe 3 O 4 , FeCl 3 and such. The growth It is then extracted and made to go through a number of processes which separate it from the ions and bring it to its elemental form. It is then put into use to make steel, where it coexists with carbon, manganese, chromium, and other alloying elements. The interaction However, iron has three electrons that it desperately need to give away. That is exactly what it does the moment the steel is brought out from the factory and put outside in the shed. Iron is more than happy to reunite with its old buddies - oxygen and moisture. It gladly gives away its electrons to them and returns to its peaceful state of Fe 2 O 3...