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Showing posts with the label metallurgy

Thesis flowchart...aka...How to decide what to write first in your thesis?

It was that moment in my thesis writing when I had received a terrible feedback and was asked to overhaul the entire document. It was time to take a break from the screen and go back to basics. I printed out my document and went home. Then I took a break that evening, because it is one of the most underrated but essential things to get everything into perspective. The next day I proceeded to lay out the pages of my thesis chapter-wise on the table. Then I took a blank paper and pad. I thought, "How will I explain my work to my family members in my native language?" So I decided to write down my work in my native language in the form of an algorithm and then rearrange my thesis. I answered the following questions to do so - What is the issue? Where is it encountered? Is it very common? What makes it so very important? What are the steps that people have already taken to solve it? Why have they not been that effective? What is it that I did to solve the issue? How did I do it? ...

Abbreviation day - EN 50125-1 Standard for Railways

 EN 50125-1 Standard for Railways 🔴 With so many short forms used in our work all around, it gets confusing and it is also not possible to remember/know all of them. So here's something new. 🔴 I will take up one short form/standard name and describe in a couple of lines what it is. Some of you may be familiar with some of the common ones. Today it is 📌 EN 50125-1 📌 🔴 EN stands for European standards. 🔴 EN 50125-1 is the standard used in railways to determine if the equipment (material, design) is compatible with the environmental conditions in Europe. 🔴Simply put, if you are in charge of design and manufacturing of a railway part, you have to look at this standard to see the environmental condition in the area of operation of the train. 🔴 The selection of the material, design, surface treatments, have to be then decided depending on how severe the environment is (sunny/cold/wind/snow etc.) Check out the free corrosion quizzes  here ! https://corrospective.com/ 😀Happy ...

3 steps to begin experiments...aka...I am lost in this lab!

  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?'

3 Stages of the beginning of your PhD...aka...OMG what the H am I doing here?

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...

Isocorrosion chart snapshot

  concept Isocorrosion chart Use Estimate corrosion rates for an alloy Select an alloy for a particular application with specific parameters Definition A plot of temperature versus electrolyte concentration, with lines depicting combination where similar corrosion rates are found example how to use it? An application needs a temperature and concentration as depicted by point 1 in the image above. We can plot it on the isocorrosion chart for that alloy and estimate the corrosion rate. The design of the component and corrosion allowance can be decided accordingly. A method to determine the suitability of the alloy for an application and electrolyte-temperature combination. Video below for practical demo of the use of the chart! Dive Deeper: Tips to begin experiments Do you like to solve quizzes ? https://corrospective.com 😀 Happy learning! 😀

Types of MARINE corrosion

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 ...

Corrosion in daily life - Blistering

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 quiz for coatings - 1

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…

To being a corrosion 'nerd'

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...

My website - https://corrospective.com

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 ...

Resources for a corrosion beginner

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 rate and pipe design

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...

The drain mystery

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 - the bane of all the industries

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...