Interaction of erosion and corrosion on high-strength steels used for marine dredging engineering

Abstract

In this work, the erosion–corrosion performances of three high-strength steel samples: high manganese austenitic steel (HMnS), dual-phase steel (D-PS), and martensitic steel (MS), which are potentially used to construct marine dredged pipelines were investigated in comparison to the Q235 carbon steel. The corrosion-enhanced erosion (C-E) and erosion-enhanced corrosion (E-C) were electrochemically studied in conjunction with surface and subsurface characterizations. Results showed that the fracture of the steel extrusions induced by micro-cutting was the main erosion-corrosion feature under normal sand impacts. The C-E played a significant role in the erosion–corrosion process, which resulted in the dissolution of the work-hardening layer and facilitated the subsurface crack propagation, particularly for D-PS and MS. Although the general E-C rate was low, the concentration of the major anodes at the highly eroded area significantly enhanced the erosion process. Evaluating erosion resistance solely based on hardness is significantly limited. The twinning deformation of the austenite grain in HMnS effectively hindered the crack propagation during the erosion–corrosion. The addition of Al and Cr elements improved the erosion–corrosion resistance of high-strength steels.