Erosion-Corrosion and Fretting

Abstract

This chapter presents the forms of corrosion related to the contact of a metallic surface with something moving on it, be it a fluid or another material. In the former case, erosion-corrosion phenomena may onset due to the rapid flow of a fluid on a metal, which combines corrosion with physical-mechanical interactions as turbulence, cavitation or impingement of particles on its surface. On the other hand, if a solid body slides on a metal surface, typically in the form of cyclic micrometric slips such as those created by vibration, fretting corrosion establishes, causing a range of damages from simple loss of brightness to the formation of craters that then trigger fatigue cracks.