1.

1 CORROSION LOOP
A Corrosion Loop is defined as an assembly of static equipments and its interconnected
piping operated with similar operating parameters, containing similar process stream and
built with same material of construction.
The reason for establishing the corrosion loop is to:
1. develop an easy presentation of similar corrosion pattern or degradation mechanisms
within a loop of equipment and piping
2. facilitate analysis in determining the probability of failure within the same corrosion
loop
3. easily manage equipment and piping inspection based on the expected degradation
mechanisms within a corrosion loop
A Corrosion Engineer shall define the corrosion loop based on his/her knowledge and
experience with the plant operation and past plant histories. He may be assisted by
operators, process engineers, mechanical engineers and inspectors who are responsible for
the unit being studied.
A corrosion loop starts and stops at pieces of static equipment or piping that:
 Experiences significant process changes that expected to trigger different degradation
mechanisms e.g. temperature, pressure, process separation, mixing of different streams,
etc.
 Experience significant changes in chemical composition of the process stream that may
affect the susceptibility to corrosion e.g. presence of corrosion contaminants, chemical
injection/ corrosion inhibition, etc.
 Is built with different classes of materials (e.g. carbon steel, stainless steel, low alloy
steel, aluminium alloy etc.).
 Is subjected to different operating modes such as regeneration cycles.

 Is injected with corrosion inhibitor

 Extends beyond one process system.

In order to keep the corrosion loop from being too large and hard to manage, it is
recommended to keep the loop within one process system. This approach will facilitate the
plant personnel to easily recognise the corrosion loop since they are very familiar with their
plant process system.
Corrosion loop is defined and identified on PFDs/PIDs and it is the initial step in the
development of a criticality based inspection program. Basic information needed to develop
Corrosion Loop includes:
 One copy each of the PFD and P&IDs

 The battery limits/boundaries of the process unit

 The list of covered processes to be included in the work scope

 Material balance sheets that include the list of the chemical composition of various
process streams within the unit.
 Unit process description

 Materials of construction

 Equipment and piping datasheets

 Piping specifications which identify materials of construction for the piping in the unit

 Chemical Safety Datasheets or Material Safety Datasheets for any special chemical
used in the unit that being studied.
 Inspection record history including any anomaly records.