Material Behavior and Material Selection from the Standpoint of Cooling Water Corrosion of Heat Exchangers.

For the chemical process industry cooling water corrosion problems are of special importance. Of the known corrosion phenomena nearly all can be observed with heat exchangers, depending on water quality and material used. By appropriate water treatment, favorable design measures and optimum materials selection the corrosion problem on the cooling water side of heat exchangers can be solved. Water treatment and design measures are only casually dealt with in this paper, which emphasizes the aspects of materials selection. Using the proper material is of special importance for once-through cooling systems. For this reason the performance of various materials is described, e. g. unalloyed steel, unalloyed steel protected by organic coatings, austenitic 18 Cr-9 Ni-steels, ferritic Cr-steels, ferritic-austenitic steels, copper and copper alloys, and titanium. For a variety of operating conditions the materials selection criteria are described. Finally, some aspects of corrosion economics in selecting materials are discussed.