Studies on galvanic corrosion of metallic materials in marine medium

Abstract

Galvanic corrosion occupies an important place among the corrosion techniques studies, especially because harbors and naval installations presents multiple components which are in direct contact with saltwater during operation time, such as: Boats propeller-bronze, ship hull-carbon steel, rivets-steel, different types of protection shields- A luminum etc., thus metallic types combinations increase selective erosion depending on the metal position in the galvanic series. The galvanic corrosion prevention can be achieved by local cathodic protection with pieces of electronegative metal (zinc, magnesium) placed near the contacts or by inserting between these two metals of one or multiple high corrosion resistance materials to that specific medium. This paper presents an experimental study on different metal couplings in Black Sea water corrosion medium, in order to highlight the anodic (oxidation) or cathodic (reduction) protection of each metal during coupling.