Quantitative understanding of the environmental effect on B10 copper alloy corrosion in seawater

Corrosion in natural seawater is difficult to simulate in a laboratory due to the slow rate and complexity of the corrosion process which involves multiple influential factors. This paper aims to explore the quantitative effect of environmental factors on corrosion process and find the best experimental conditions which represent the actual environment and have the best acceleration effect. A new framework is followed in this paper which consists of three parts: design of experiments, outdoor and laboratory corrosion tests, and corrosion mechanism consistency confirmation. A L₆ (3¹ × 2²) orthogonal experiment is designed in laboratory to study the effect of temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen on marine corrosion behavior of B10 copper alloy. In each test, H₂O₂ is added in seawater to accelerate the corrosion process. Outdoor exposure tests are also conducted in natural seawater. Results show that the corrosion process in laboratory and outdoor follows the same mechanism, in view of corrosion product and morphology, corrosion kinetics, as well as mechanical properties. With the help of quantitative analysis of the test results, a better acceleration condition can be designed.