Electrochimica Acta 52 (2007) 70687074

Evaluation of corrosion and erosioncorrosion resistances of mild steel in sulde-containing NaCl aerated solutions
Abdel Salam Hamdy a,b, , A.G. Saeh c , M.A. Shoeib b , Y. Barakat d
b a Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA Department of Surface Technology and Corrosion Protection, Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute, CMRDI, P.O. Box 87, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt c Faculty of Engineering, University of Tripoli, Libya d Tabbin Institute for Metallurgical Studies, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt

Received 8 March 2007; received in revised form 14 May 2007; accepted 16 May 2007 Available online 21 May 2007

Abstract This paper reports results of potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance measurements and erosioncorrosion of mild steel in aerated sulde containing 3.5% NaCl solutions at room temperature. The pitting corrosion behavior was studied in NaCl solution containing 0.001, 0.005 and 0.010 M Na2 S, using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The erosioncorrosion resistance was evaluated after rotating the samples in sulde polluted NaCl solution for 24 h at a velocity of 300, 600 and 900 ppm using a rotating disc electrode. Results showed that the presence of sulde ions in NaCl solution resulted in a signicant increase in the corrosion attack due to the local acidication caused by iron sulde formation. The localized replacement of the protective Fe-oxide lm by a non-protective iron sulde lm is responsible for the pitting and erosioncorrosion attack. The study concluded that the higher the concentration of sulde in NaCl solution, the lower the resistance to pitting and erosioncorrosion. Moreover, increasing the solution rotating velocity affects negatively the erosioncorrosion resistance. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Pitting corrosion; Sulde; Erosioncorrosion; Mild steel; NaCl solution; EIS; Polarization

1. Introduction The corrosion of steel in sulde-containing solutions has received considerable attention for many years due to its importance in several industrial processes such as oil and gas production and transport. The evaluation of steel corrosion in sulde environments is important in the petrochemical industry, as this phenomenon is responsible for costly economic and human loss [1]. Mild steel is used to manufacture essential parts and components used in the petroleum industry. Because these oil environments contain suldes, numerous studies have been

Corresponding author at: Department of Surface Technology and Corrosion Protection, Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute, CMRDI, P.O. Box 87, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt. Tel.: +20 2 501 0640; fax: +20 2 510 0639. E-mail address: asalam85@yahoo.com (A.S. Hamdy).

made concerning iron sulde corrosion products formed on steels under a variety of reaction conditions [13]. In addition, sulde pollution of seawater at the coastal areas can occur from industrial waste discharge, biological and bacteriological process in seawater (seaweed, marine organisms or microorganisms, sulde reducing bacteria) which promotes aqueous corrosion of different materials including steels. It has been reported that the corrosion rates of materials, such as copper alloys, increases by a factor of 1030 when seawater contains sulfur compounds as impurities [4]. Corrosion problems can occur when an oil processing plant is left idle for long periods, with stagnant seawater (after testing or during downtime). In this case, corrosion can be particularly aggressive as a result of sulde pollution [2]. Therefore, the objective of this work is to evaluate the corrosion and erosioncorrosion resistance of mild steel in 3.5% NaCl as a function of sulde content.

0013-4686/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2007.05.034

A.S. Hamdy et al. / Electrochimica Acta 52 (2007) 70687074 Table 1 Chemical composition of mild steel (wt.%) Si 0.087 Mn 0.44 Ti 0.013 V 0.026 Al 0.005 Cr 0.002 Ni 0.0005 Mo 0.0009 Nb 0.0006 Cu 0.003 Co 0.029 W 0.011 Pb 0.011 C 0.05

7069

Fe Bal.

2. Experimental 2.1. Materials The electrodes used for these corrosion studies were cut from a mild steel sheet in the form of 6 cm 3 cm 0.3 cm pieces. The specimens for erosioncorrosion studies were cut from a mild steel rod and prepared in cylindrical form with diameter of 0.85 cm and height of 3 cm. The chemical composition of the mild steel under investigation is shown in Table 1. 2.2. Surface preparation and solutions Each steel specimen was abraded to a 800 grit nish with SiC paper, degreased in acetone, washed with distilled water, and dried in dry air. For the erosioncorrosion experiments, the samples were weighed before immersion in the corrosive solutions. A series of mild steel samples were subjected to corrosion under the following conditions. All the experiments were performed at room temperature under stagnant conditions, except that for erosioncorrosion tests. Specimens for erosioncorrosion studies were immersed in the corrosive solutions (listed in Table 2) for 24 h under different rotating speeds: 0, 300, 600, and 900 rpm, respectively. After 24 h of rotation, the samples were rinsed with distilled water and acetone, dried with hot air, and weighed again for weight loss calculations. Laboratory grade chemicals and distilled water were used to prepare all solutions. 3. Methods 3.1. Electrochemical impedance tests The corrosion behavior of the previous specimens was monitored using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and DC polarization techniques during immersion in the corrosive solutions (Table 2). The solutions were open to air and kept at room temperature for up to one week. A three-electrode set-up was used with impedance spectra being recorded at the corrosion potential ECorr . A saturated calomel electrode (SCE) was used as the reference electrode. It was coupled capacitively to a Pt wire to reduce the phase
Table 2 Experimental parameters for corrosion of mild steel Symbol Blank S1 S2 S3 Electrolyte composition Pure 3.5% NaCl 3.5% NaCl + 0.001 M Na2 S 3.5% NaCl + 0.005 M Na2 S 3.5% NaCl + 0.01 M Na2 S pH 6.5 8.13 8.60 10.88 Rotating speed (rpm) 0, 300, 600, 900 0, 300, 600, 900 0, 300, 600, 900 0, 300, 600, 900

shift at high frequencies. EIS was performed between 0.01 Hz and 65 kHz frequency range using a frequency response analyzer (Autolab PGSTAT 30, Eco-Chemie). The amplitude of the sinusoidal voltage signal was 10 mV. 3.2. Polarization tests Liner polarization measurements of specimens, previously immersed for 30 min in the solutions (Table 2), were made using a scan rate of 0.07 mV/s in the applied potential range from 0.15 to 0.7 VSCE with respect to ECorr using an Autolab PGSTAT 30 galvanostat/potentiostat. The corrosion potential (Ecorr ) and corrosion current density (icorr ), calculated using the Tafel extrapolation method [5]. The exposed surface area was 25.4 mm2 . All curves were normalized to 1 cm2 . 3.3. Energy-dispersive spectrometry After immersing the samples in NaCl solutions for one week, the samples were washed with deionized water and then dried. SEM images of the cleaned samples were obtained using a digital scanning electron microscope (Model JEOL JSM 5410, Oxford Instruments). Microprobe analysis was performed using energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) (Model 6587, Pentafet Link, Oxford Microanalysis Group). 3.4. X-ray diffraction After drying the corroded specimen (one week in corrosive solutions) with methanol, the solid surface corrosion products were characterized by an X-ray diffractometry (XRD). XRD analysis was performed using Bruker AXS, Model D8, 40 kV, 40 mA, Cu K ADVANCE. 3.5. Surface morphology Corrosion morphology was examined with a metallographic microscope (LEICA DMR) with a Quips programming window, LEICA Imaging Systems Ltd. 4. Results and discussions 4.1. Effect of sulde concentrations The effect of sulde concentrations on the corrosion of mild steel in 3.5% NaCl solution was studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), polarization resistance and cyclic potentiodynamic techniques. EIS techniques have been applied to study pitting corrosion and other localized corrosion and has been shown to have marked advantages in the study of interfacial reactions and other interfacial phenomena [512]. In

7070

A.S. Hamdy et al. / Electrochimica Acta 52 (2007) 70687074

particular, the information obtained from EIS measurements has time-resolved and surface-averaged characteristics. Moreover, EIS is a non-destructive technique. 4.1.1. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy EIS has been successfully applied to the study of corrosion systems for 30 years and been proven to be a powerful and accurate method for measuring corrosion rates especially for coatings and thin lms. An important advantage of EIS over other laboratory techniques is the possibility of using very small amplitude signals without signicantly disturbing the properties being measured. To make an EIS measurement, a small amplitude signal is applied to a specimen over a range of frequencies. The expression for impedance is composed of a real and an imaginary part. If the real part is plotted on the z-axis and the imaginary part on the y-axis of a chart, we get a Nyquist plot. However, Nyquist plots have one major shortcoming. When you look at any data point on the plot, you cannot tell what frequency was used to record that point. Therefore, other impedance plots such as Bode plots are important to make a correct interpretation. In Bode plots, the impedance is plotted with log frequency on the x-axis and both the absolute value of the impedance (|Z| = Z0) and phase-shift on the y-axis. Unlike the Nyquist plot, the Bode plot explicitly shows frequency information. The impedance measurement technique has been applied to the study of pitting corrosion and other localized corrosion [69]. The impedance technique has marked advantages in the study of interfacial reactions and other interfacial phenomena. The impedance information obtained has time-resolved and surface-averaged characteristics [9]. In this work, the corrosion behavior of mild steel specimens, immersed in NaCl solution containing different sulde ratios was investigated. Nyquist plots (Fig. 1a) show the surface resistances after one week of immersion in sulde polluted NaCl solutions. The corrosion resistances decreased with increasing sulde concentrations. The surface resistance of mild steel in pure NaCl solution (Blank) is 2.8 103 cm2 . The resistance sharply decreased to be 0.1 103 , 0.4 103 , and 0.7 103 cm2 after addition of 0.001, 0.005, and 0.010 M Na2 S, respectively. Bode plots (Fig. 1b) showed that the surface resistance of the mild steels was generally decreased by increasing the sulde ratio. The samples that immersed in 3.5% NaCl + 0.001 M Na2 S (S1), 3.5% NaCl + 0.005 M Na2 S (S2) and 3.5% NaCl + 0.010 M Na2 S (S3) showed dramatic decrease of the impedance in the capacitive region, which is characteristic for the pitting process on steel. In addition, the phase angle () tended toward zero at low frequencies, indicating that the resistance of the barrier layer

Fig. 1. (a) Nyquist plots and (b) Bode plots of mild steel after one week of immersion in 3.5% NaCl containing varying concentrations of Na2 S. (Blank) 0 M Na2 S; (S1) 0.001 M Na2 S; (S2) 0.005 M Na2 S; (S3) 0.010 M Na2 S.

was being approached. The changes of the spectra at very low frequencies indicate the occurrence of pitting and were in agreement with visual and SEM inspection. On the other hand, the samples tested in pure NaCl solution, without sulde (blank), showed very stable impedance behavior, even after one week of immersion, indicating that the presence of sulde ions in the solution negatively affects the protection performance of the passive oxide lms. This would indicate that sulde ions interfere with the protective iron oxide layer to form less protective layers of iron oxide plus ion sulde. 4.1.2. Linear polarization measurements Linear polarization measurements of mild steel in 3.5% NaCl solution containing 0, 0.001, 0.005, and 0.010 M Na2 S, respectively, is shown in Table 3. The corrosion potential (Ecorr ) and corrosion current density (icorr ), calculated using the Tafel extrapolation method [5] are also given in Table 3. It is evident from Table 3 that the addition of sulde increases the icorr and corrosion rates and decreases the polarization resistances (Rp ). The extent of increase in icorr and corrosion rates is found to be a function of the concentration of Na2 S, higher the concentration of Na2 S, higher the values of corrosion rate and larger the

Table 3 Effect of sulde concentrations on the corrosion behavior of mild steel in 3.5% NaCl solution Sample Blank S1 S2 S3 Ecorr (mV) vs. SCE 690 724 709 699 icorr ( A/cm2 ) 1.144 2.019 2.065 3.790 Rp ( ) 9.811 5.788 5.127 3.801 Corrosion rate (MPY) 15.11 103 15.45 103 28.36 103 8.56 103 ba (mV/de) 26 28 22 29 bc (mV/de) 25 24 28 29

A.S. Hamdy et al. / Electrochimica Acta 52 (2007) 70687074

7071

increase in icorr values. The corrosion rate increases more than three times the value of blank samples when the sulde concentration is increased from 0 to 0.010 M. These results are in agreement with the previous work of Gudas and Hack [13]. They suggested that soluble sulde concentrations as low as 7 g/l could cause signicant adverse effects to brass. Soluble suldes could increase the overall corrosion rates through acceleration of anodic, cathodic, or both reactions. The observed negative shift in Ecorr and the increase in icorr in the presence of sulde ions (Table 3) are considered to be due to the change in nature of surface lms on steel and suggest that the corrosion is under anodic control. It is suggested that the iron oxide layer becomes defective in the presence of sulde ions in the medium. This defective surface layer consists of iron oxide and iron sulde that permit rapid ionic and electronic transport through it and causes an increase in the corrosion rate. The iron sulde seems to be non-protective compared with the iron oxide. The presence of sulde ions in the electrolyte solution catalyzes the corrosion reaction by preventing formation of protective iron oxide [1420]. Hence, increasing the corrosion rate of mild steel in 3.5% NaCl solution containing sulde (Fig. 2) is due to the formation of non-protective iron sulde lm at the steel surface. Moreover, the presence of iron sulde promotes the anodic dissolution and accelerates local corrosion under the precipitate lm [19,20]. 4.1.3. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements Localized corrosion is one of the most dangerous corrosion species for degradation of pipes or containers intended for longterm use in industry. Pitting is of particular concern because it may lead to premature breaching of the container materials through electrochemical dissolution processes that can accelerate with time [1520]. The effect of sulde ion concentrations on the corrosion behavior of mild steel was studied in NaCl solution. Potentiodynamic polarization technique (Fig. 3) was used to evaluate the pitting corrosion resistance for different samples in NaCl solution containing sulde. In this technique, the potential was recorded starting from a cathodic potential (about 1.75 V/SCE) and be allowed to sweep to the anodic potential direction till it reaches the pitting potential. At that potential, a sudden shift in

Fig. 3. Potentiodynamic polarization curves of mild steel after one week of immersion in different corrosive solutions.

the current to the active direction will be observed. The pitting tendency of the mild steel can be estimated by the determination of pitting potential, Epit . The Epit is always dened as the potential below which the metal surface remains passive and above which pits can nucleate and propagate. The difference between Epit and the corrosion potential ECorr represents the passive domain for any materials or alloys. In this work, the difference between (Epit ECorr ) was taken as a relative measure of the passivation ability. The greater the difference between Epit ECorr is, the greater the passive range and hence, the materials will be safe from corrosion (Fig. 3). According to the potentiodynamic data in Table 4 and Fig. 3, the pitting corrosion resistances decreased with increasing sulde concentrations. The passivity domain of mild steel in pure NaCl solution (blank) is 221 mV. The passivity domain gradually decreased to be 117, 24, and 4 mV after one week of immersion in NaCl solution containing 0.001, 0.005, and 0.010 M Na2 S, respectively. These results are in agreement with the EIS results, visual inspection and microscopic examinations. 4.1.4. Surface examinations SEM micrographs (Fig. 4), optical microscope and visual inspection of S1, S2 and S3 samples showed severe pitting as well as crevice corrosion after one week of immersion. The number of pits exceeded 15 pit/cm2 for S3. Pitting corrosion was also observed in S1 and S2 samples with limited areas of crevice corrosion. However, the number of pits was less than 15 pit/cm2 . The best localized corrosion resistance was observed from the blank samples (without sulde). Few zones of crevice corrosion were observed in addition to general corrosion Fig. 5. The chemical composition of corrosion products was investigated by XRD. Generally, iron sulde and iron oxide (Fe2 O3 )
Table 4 Potentiodynamic polarization data for mild steel after one week of immersion in different corrosive solutions Sample Blank S1 S2 S3 Epit (mV) 523 696 745 776 ECorr (mV) 744 813 769 780 Epit ECorr (mV) 221 117 24 4

Fig. 2. Effect of sulde concentrations on the corrosion rate of mild steel after one week in 3.5% NaCl solution.

7072

A.S. Hamdy et al. / Electrochimica Acta 52 (2007) 70687074

Fig. 4. SEM micrograph of mild steel after one week of immersion in 0, 0.001, 0.005, and 0.010 M sulde containing NaCl solutions, respectively.

were detected in the surface layers of samples S1, S2 and S3. The blank samples revealed formation of both ferric and ferrous oxides. Microprobe analysis using EDS (Table 5), revealed presence of sulfur for S1 and S3 samples. However, the amount of sulfur detected in S3 samples is three times higher than S1. The lowest sulfur content was detected from S2 samples. However, about 1% of chlorine with the highest oxygen content (66.8) was also observed in S2. These results may indicate formation of Fe2 O3 and iron oxychloride compound. Although such compounds have an inhibitive action on the corrosion of iron, the presence of sulde mixed with such compound increases the

competitive action between the different forms of oxide and sulde and hence, decreases the localized corrosion resistances after one week of immersion. It seems that the presence of sulfur inside the outer iron oxide layer decreases the protective power of such layer to corrosion attack due to the local acidication caused by iron sulde formation. The localized replacement of the protective Fe-oxide lm by a non-protective iron sulde (FeS1x ) lm is responsible for the pitting corrosion. Therefore, blank samples showed the highest resistance to pitting corrosion. Further details about the chemical composition of the outer surface layers will be discussed in a future paper for better understanding the nature of oxide and sulde formed due to corrosion attack especially for S2. 4.2. Effect of solution speed (erosioncorrosion) In sulde free 3.5% NaCl solution, the weight loss of mild steel slowly increases with increasing the rotation speed from 0 to 600 rpm due to the corrosion reaction between the protective iron oxide layers with chloride ions from the NaCl solution. Increasing the speed up to 900 rpm will increase the possibility to remove such protective layer and hence the corrosion rate will increase dramatically. On the other hand, the corrosion rates increased dramatically with the increase of rotation speed from 0 to 300 rpm in presence of Na2 S in NaCl solution. The presence of sulde ions in NaCl solution resulted in a signicant increase in the corrosion attack due to the local acidication caused by iron sulde formation. The localized replacement of the protective Fe-oxide lm by a non-protective iron sulde lm is responsible for increasing the pitting and erosioncorrosion attack. The higher the concentration of sulde in NaCl solution is, the lower the resistance to erosioncorrosion. Increasing the rotation speed more than 300 rpm increases the corrosion rate slowly. This can be attributed to the removal of sulde ions from the surface at high

Fig. 5. EDX analysis for mild steel surface layer after one week in 3.5% NaCl solution + 0.001 M Na2 S (S1).

A.S. Hamdy et al. / Electrochimica Acta 52 (2007) 70687074 Table 5 EDS of mild steel after one week of corrosion Sample Blank S1 2S 3S Fe, atomic ratio (%) 31.49 41.13 30.62 34.27 S, atomic ratio (%) 1.93 0.66 5.13 O, atomic ratio (%) 68.46 55.24 66.80 60.43

7073

Cl, atomic ratio (%) 0.92

speed preventing the local acidication which is the main source of corrosion. 4.3. Effect of immersion time The immersion time in sulde containing NaCl solution was found to have a marked effect on the initiation and formation of pitting corrosion. Nyquist plots (Fig. 6a) show the surface resistances after one day of immersion in sulde containing NaCl solutions. Taking the surface resistance of the blank sample as a base, the corrosion resistances of suldecontaining samples decreased, as expected, by increasing the sulde concentrations as shown from the spectra of S1 and S3 samples. The surface resistance of the blank sample is 3.3 103 cm2 . The surface resistance of S1 and S3 decreased to be 1.6 103 and 1.2 103 cm2 , respectively. However, S2 showed a distinct improve in the corrosion resistance to be 4.6 103 cm2 . According to Bode plots (Fig. 6b), S1 and S3 samples showed a dramatic decrease in the impedance in the capacitive region,

which is characteristic for the pitting process on steel. In addition, the phase angle () tended toward zero at low frequencies, indicating that the resistance of the barrier layer was being approached. In addition, maximum of was observed for the S1 samples, as evident in Fig. 3b. These changes of the spectra at very low frequencies indicated the occurrence of pitting and were in agreement with visual and SEM inspection. On the other hand, S2 samples showed very stable impedance behavior (Fig. 7a and b), indicating that sulde ions, especially in the rst hours of immersion, may be temporary converted to intermediate chemical species such as oxychloride or sulte and sulfate compounds which have an inhibitive action on steel [19,20]. Therefore, the pitting resistance increased compared with the blank samples (Fig. 7a and b) after one day of immersion. After one week of immersion, the corrosion resistances decreased sharply for all samples. The surface resistance of mild steel in pure NaCl solution (Blank) is 2.8 103 cm2 . The surface resistance of S1, S2 and S3 sharply decreased to be 0.1 103 , 0.4 103 , and 0.7 103 cm2 , respectively.

Fig. 6. (a) Nyquist plots and (b) Bode plots of mild steel after one day of immersion in 3.5% NaCl containing varying concentrations of Na2 S. (Blank) 0 M Na2 S; (S1) 0.001 M Na2 S; (S2) 0.005 M Na2 S; (S3) 0.010 M Na2 S.

Fig. 7. (a) Nyquist plots and (b) Bode plots of mild steel after different immersion times in 3.5% NaCl containing varying concentrations of Na2 S. (Blank) 0 M Na2 S; (S1) 0.001 M Na2 S; (S2) 0.005 M Na2 S; (S3) 0.010 M Na2 S.

7074

A.S. Hamdy et al. / Electrochimica Acta 52 (2007) 70687074 [3] A.G. Wilkjord, T.E. Rummery, F.E. Doern, D.G. Owen, Corr. Sci. 20 (1980) 651. [4] T.S. Lee, H.P. Hack, D.G. Tipton, Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on Marine Corrosion and Fouling, 1980 (Paper no. 37). [5] ASM Handbook, Corrosion, 9th ed., vol. 13, 1987, p. 214. [6] M. Orado, T. Okl, Light Met. 36 (1986) 416. [7] J.L. Dawson, M.G.S. Ferreira, Corr. Sci. 26 (1986) 1009. [8] F. Mansfeld, H. Shih, J. Electrochem. Soc. 135 (1988) 1171. [9] P.Q. Zhang, J.X. Wu, W.Q. Zhang, X.Y. Lu, K. Wang, Corr. Sci. 34 (8) (1993) 1343. [10] A.S. Hamdy, E.H. El-Shennawy, T. El-Bitar, Int. J. Electrochem. Sci. 1 (2006) 171. [11] A.S. Hamdy, E.H. El-Shennawy, T. El-Bitar, Corrosion behavior of Nbbearing austenitic stainless steels in NaCl solution, in: Presented at Symposium Steel Product Metallurgy and Applications, Materials Science & Technology Conference and Exhibition (MS&T, 06), Cinergy Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA, October 1519, 2006, p. 423. [12] A.S. Hamdy, E.H. El-Shennawy, T. El-Bitar, Mater. Lett. 61 (2007) 2827. [13] J.P. Gudas, H.P. Hack, Corr. 35 (1979) 67. [14] H.W. Pickering, Corr. Sci. 23 (1983) 1107. [15] M.M. Al-Abdallah, Br. Corr. J. 31 (1993) 3. [16] T.Y. Chem, Z.S. Smialowska, Corrs. Sci. 28 (1998) 97. [17] A.U. Malik, P.C. Mayaankutly, N.A. Siddiqui, I. Nandigani, S. Ahmed, Corr. Sci. 33 (1992) 1809. [18] M. Abdallah, S.M. Abd-Elhamim, B. Electrochem. 12 (1996) 449. [19] B. Bavarian, A. Moccari, D. Macdonald, Corr. 38 (2) (1982) 104. [20] J.M. Zhao, Z. Wei, Y. Zuo, X.H. Zhao, J. Appl. Electrochem. 35 (2005) 267.

5. Conclusion 1. The presence of sulde ions in 3.5% NaCl solution results in a signicant increase in the corrosion and erosioncorrosion attack on mild steel. 2. Formation of a non-protective iron sulde lm instead of the protective oxide lm in sulde containing solution is due to the catalyzing ability of the sulde ions to prevent oxide formation and hence, increase corrosion attack. 3. Increasing the sulde concentration affects negatively the corrosion resistance of mild steel. 4. The solution speed was found also to have a marked effect on the corrosion resistance. In pure NaCl solution, increasing the speed increases the corrosion rates. In sulde containing NaCl, the corrosion rates increase rapidly with increasing the solution speed. However, at very high speed the corrosion rates increase gradually. This can be explained by continuous removal of the local acidic zones caused by sulde ions at the mild steel surface. Hence, preventing corrosion to initiate. References
[1] R.C. Cabrera-Sierra, I. Garcia, E. Sosa, T. Oropeza, I. Gonzalez, Electrochim. Acta 46 (2000) 487. [2] P. Traverso, A.M. Beccaria, G. Poggi, Br. Corr. J. 29 (2) (1994).