Corrosion uncertainty modelling for steel structures

Marine environments are well-known to be very corrosive for mild and low alloy steels. For reasons of economy, such steels are still the preferred materials for off-shore structures, ship hulls, sheet piling and harbour-side facilities. Despite some quite extensive, long-term experimental test programs, the prediction of the likely corrosion loss of material is still rather simplistic, even though the various factors that can influence marine corrosion are known. However, precise understanding of the mechanics of marine corrosion has been slow to develop and mathematical formulation has been largely neglected. This paper reviews the various factors of importance in marine corrosion, outlines previous models and describes ongoing work aimed at developing a probabilistic phenomenological model for time-dependent material loss of mild and low alloy steels in immersion conditions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.