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  !! 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...

  All the students in the first few days of research are faced with the dilemma of the right time and way to begin experimentation. There are as many ways and thought processes to do so as there are people. I will share my learnings here. The problem is that the literature review tends to become so vast that it is difficult to decide what the exact problem is. 1. The best way is to NOT WAIT for the literature review to get over. Begin with the experiments simultaneously. Gain experience on as many new techniques as possible. 2. Start with that research paper which will most likely form the basis of your work. Attempt to reproduce the experiments in the paper. Try to see what other experiments can corroborate those results. 3. Select the correct research papers to continue the literature review. P.S. All the experiments should have a reason for doing them. You should be able to answer the question 'Why should I do this experiment? What will I learn?'

PhD is not a goal, PhD is a journey, and a mighty transformative one at that. That it has different stages is a known fact. However, just the beginning of the PhD has different sub-stages. The pre-beginning the admit and preparation to leave There is fear of the unknown as well as the excited anticipation of new places and people. Specifically in case of Indian students, the flurry of bag packing is accompanied with homemade pickles and snacks. The beginning orientation and settling in The students at this point in time are faced with a bit of anxiety and struggle while searching for accommodation (for overseas universities). There is the factor of being so far away from the family for the first time. Then there also is the undercurrent of being able to manage finances and household chores. A very busy phase indeed. The post-beginning where the students settle into their research groups and begin the literature review. Some may also begin small experiments. There is the enthusiasm of l...

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 ...

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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...

I recently moved to a new house. As expected, there was a lot of cleaning up to do. One of the tasks was the cleaning of the washbasin. Usually, the drain is a circular part with  5 to 6 holes for the water to flow out. What I saw was this - I have not had a chance to analyse the material of the drain. However, a quick search tells me that this is most probably stainless steel. The water that this drain is exposed to is the bore water. Thus, the drain has encountered a lot of chlorides. There is general as well as localized corrosion. The damage started off as a simple process of pitting. Pitting due to chlorides is one of the most common headaches for poor stainless steel. They break the passive oxide film, and reach the underlying fresh iron. This iron then reacts with the usual suspects (ions, oxygen, water) and forms what we see as the rust. As can be seen in the picture, the thin sections of the drain between the holes have disappeared in three places. This may have h...

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...