Erosion-corrosion occurs in pipelines that transport both corrosive liquids and erosive solid particles. This study has tested the erosion-corrosion behavior of mild carbon steel under conditions where there is no protective iron carbonate film. High and low salt concentrations were studied in order to determine the effect of salt concentration on the erosion-corrosion process.
The effect of erosion-corrosion on mild steel was tested under disturbed flow by using a specially designed test section consisting of three flow alterations: a flow constriction, protrusion, and expansion. Under the tested conditions it was found that there is no synergistic effect between erosion and corrosion and that for an unprotected base metal the rate of metal loss is equal to the sum of erosion loss and corrosion loss. The higher salt concentration led to a lower corrosion rate and erosion rate but did notaffect the interaction between erosion and corrosion.