Corrosion Behavior and Mechanical Property Degradation of Weathering Steel in Marine Atmosphere
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 9
Abstract
This paper presents an experimental investigation into the corrosion behaviors and mechanical properties of weathering steel (WS) in a marine atmosphere. Two types of WS (Q420qNH and Q420qNHY) were tested, and carbon steel (Q420q) was chosen as contrast. First, as a simulated marine atmosphere environment, the neutral salt-spray accelerated corrosion test was conducted to study the corrosion mechanism of WS. Corrosion characteristics including corrosion evolution with time and surface morphologies of corroded specimens were obtained and compared among three types of steel. Then, tensile testing on corroded specimens was carried out to investigate the mechanical property degradation of WS. The digital image correlation (DIC) method was used to obtain the full-field strain of corroded specimens during the experiment. The effect of corrosion damage on the mechanical properties of the steels is discussed. Finally, the degradation mechanism of mechanical properties resulting from the local corrosion was determined by analyzing the surface strain of corroded specimens. Results show that Q420qNHY steel with much higher corrosion resistance was more applicable to the marine atmosphere because of the formation of a compact rust layer on the steel substrate surface. The corrosion morphology characteristics of three types of steel were different at the same corrosion time. Q420qNH and Q420qNHY steels presented a similar degradation degree of mechanical properties after corrosion, which was less than that of Q420q steel. However, according to the analysis on degradation of elongation, Q420qNH steel is not applicable to the marine atmosphere. The local corrosion accelerated the development of strain at the fracture section, which eventually resulted in the reduction of elongation with increasing corrosion degree. The different corrosion behaviors and mechanical properties of steels would significantly affect the service performance and life of bridges and should be considered during bridge design.
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Acknowledgments
This work presented here is supported by the National Science Fund of China (51578370) and the National Science Fund of Tianjin (16JCZDJC40300 and 16YFZCSF00460). The steels are provided by Anshan Iron and Steel. Support from them is gratefully appreciated. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsors.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 9 • September 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 13, 2018
Accepted: Mar 13, 2019
Published online: Jun 18, 2019
Published in print: Sep 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Nov 18, 2019
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