Corrosion and Protection of Galvanized Steel in Power Grid

Abstract

Galvanized steel is widely used in power grid, the failure of these steel components will seriously threaten the safe operation of the grid. In this paper, transmission tower angle steel and connecting bolts were investigated by means of macro-inspection, zinc coating measurement, energy dispersive spectrometer(EDS). Then the corrosion mechanism and behavior of galvanized steel have been investigated and the protection measures were proposed. The results show that the zinc coating is corroded quickly in the high sulfur environment; corrosion failure of zinc coating on the aluminum-steel dissimilar metal connecting bolt can accelerate the corrosion of the aluminum connecting plate.