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Essay / The importance of corrosion monitoring technology
I. WHY MONITOR CORROSION Corrosion costs process industries approximately $300 billion annually in lost production, equipment failures, and fines for environmental and safety violations (Avery, 2008). The loss of money, time and equipment has made it important to study corrosion and find ways to stop or control it. But since corrosion is a natural problem, that means we can't totally prevent it from happening, but we can try to control it. This fact led to the corrosion monitoring technology which, on the other hand, began to develop by adopting different approaches, considerations and ideas to control the corrosion problem. The author of the book "Corrosion for All", Groysman, A. suggested that it is impossible to prevent the corrosion of many metals because they are thermodynamically unstable in the environment. And then he suggested studying the materials to see how long the equipment or structure would operate safely and efficiently under particular conditions. In other words, knowing the corrosion rate and type of corrosion helps predict equipment life and evaluate when to make shutdowns, repairs, or replace equipment (2009). Another source defines the word corrosion as the degradation of a technical material due to chemical reactions with its environment and in the most common use of the word corrosion it means the electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with oxygen or usually with an oxidant. The formation of an iron oxide due to oxidation is an example of corrosion and is commonly referred to as rust. In other words, corrosion is the wearing away of metals due to a chemical reaction. So, in order to stop the wear and tear of engineering metals, some m...... middle of paper ...... Prestressed concrete structures in new construction. Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration. Stears, CD, Degerstedt, RM, Moghissi, OC and Bone, L. (1998). Field program on the use of coupons to monitor the cathodic protection of an underground pipeline. Alaska: Material performance. Tullmin, M. (2003). Corrosion Monitoring and Control - History. Retrieved April 4, 2010 from Corrosion Club: http://www.corrosion-club.com/historyhome.htm Tullmin, M. (2003). Corrosion monitoring, what is it? Retrieved April 10, 2010 from Corrosion Club: http://www.corrosion-club.com/whatis.htm Yang, L. (Ed.). (nd). Corrosion monitoring techniques. Retrieved March 18, 2010 from Woodhead Publishing: http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=1257Yang, L. (Ed.). (2008). Corrosion monitoring techniques. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing Ltd.