Atmospheric Corrosion of Structural Steels Exposed in the 2004 Tsunami-Affected Areas of Aceh

Abstract

Aceh province located at the northwestern tip of Sumatra Island in Indonesia has a coastal environment and a coastline of around 1660 km. Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, and Aceh Barat are among the districts of Aceh Province located on those coastlines. The earthquake and tsunami that struck Aceh in December 2004 caused much of these districts to be submerged by seawater. Thus, the environment of these areas might become more corrosive. This study investigates atmospheric corrosion of structural steels exposed to the environment by the 2004 tsunami. Some typical structural steels, which have five different shapes, were selected for the test. Atmospheric corrosion tests were employed by referring to ASTM G50 standards. Eight locations were selected as the test sites: Peukan Bada, Ulee Lheu, Lingke, Lampulo, Suak Ribee, Suak Pandan, Suak Seuke, and Suak Geudebang. Following a six-month exposure, experimental results show that the atmospheric corrosion rate for Peukan Bada, Ulee Lheu, Lingke, Lampulo, Suak Ribee, Suak Pandan, Suak Seuke, and Suak Geudebang was 0.043–5.451 mpy, 0.035–3.804 mpy, 0.058–5.332 mpy, 0.045–9.727 mpy, 0.265–3.957 mpy, 0.073–2.970 mpy, 0.090–4.101 mpy, and 0.380–6.379 mpy, respectively. The results show that the relative corrosion resistances for all structural steels exposed in these areas can be categorized as good to outstanding. Hence, it is safe to utilize the selected structural steels regarding their atmospheric corrosion resistance.