Corrosion of Copper Pipeline Systems under Different Flow Conditions

In the current study, the material corrosion behavior and degradation of a closed-loop copper piping systems were investigated taking temperature and flow parameters into consideration. To simulate the practical environment conditions, two identical copper closed-loop piping systems were constructed with three types of joints. Both systems were filled with 3% sodium chloride solution and run for about eleven months period. They were heated to a temperature of 80 degrees C for eight hours a day and for 5 days a week. Outside that heating period, systems were maintained at room temperature (23 +/- 2 degrees C). Within such a heating interval, the contained solution for one system was kept in stagnation condition while it was flowing at input velocity of 0.27 m/s for the other. For both systems, the corrosion was then assessed and quantified using different evaluation techniques: Potentiodynamic test, Pourbaix diagrams, light microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results confirmed a diverse significant influence of solution flowing conditions on the damage of copper pipes.