The Corrosion of High Performance Steel in Adverse Environments

Abstract

The corrosion products that have formed on weathering steel bridges exposed to different weather conditions in the United States have been evaluated. They have been analyzed by spectroscopic techniques to determine the relationship between protective and non‐protective rust coatings, and their relationship to the exposure conditions. Bridges constructed recently using High Performance Steel, as well as older bridges built with Type A588B weathering steel, were evaluated for corrosion performance of the rust coatings. In locations where the steel is subjected to regular wet‐dry cycling, where the surface is wet for less than about 20% of the time, a protective patina starts to form after a few months exposure, and continues to an adherent, impervious coating after a decade. The protective patina is characterized by the formation of only goethite and lepidocrocite. The goethite makes up about 80% of the rust, and itself consists of a nanophase component, < 15 nm, making up about 70% of the goethite. The nanophase goethite is basically undetected by X‐ray diffraction. In the presence of high time‐of‐wetness, >40%, or infrequent drying cycles, (regions close to waterways, fog or having high humidity), the weathering steel forms a rust coating that consists of a large amount of maghemite, and goethite that contains very little of the nanophase component. The rust coating ex‐foliates from the steel and is not protective. Under exposure conditions in which chlorides are deposited onto the weathering steel surface, (marine or de‐icing salt locations), the protective patina also does not form. Instead, the rust coating consists of a large fraction of akaganeite that forms at the expense of the lepidocrocite and nanophase goethite. The bridges exposed to high chloride concentrations, 1.5 wt%, and therefore having no protective patina, have corrosion rates measured to be 6 times larger than expected for weathering steel with the protective patina.