Development of Advanced Electrochemical Emission Spectroscopy for Monitoring Corrosion in Simulated DOE Liquid Waste
Various forms of general and localized corrosion represent principal threats to the integrity of DOE liquid waste storage tanks. These tanks, which are of a single wall or double wall design, depending upon their age, are fabricated from welded carbon steel and contain a complex waste-form comprising NaOH and NaNO3, among other chemicals. Because waste leakage can have a profound environmental impact, considerable interest exists in predicting the accumulation of corrosion damage, so as to more effectively schedule maintenance and repair. In the present work, we are examining the corrosion of carbon steels in alkaline environments with the ultimate aim of: (1) Characterizing the general corrosion of iron and carbon steel in environments that are prototypical of DOE liquid waste systems; (2) Exploring the mechanism (s) of passivity breakdown and hence the initiation of localized corrosion; (3) Characterizing the mechanism (s) of caustic cracking in high strength steels that simulate weld heat affected zones in DOE liquid waste storage tanks; (4) Development of deterministic methods for predicting the accumulation of general and localized corrosion damage in the storage tanks; and (5) Enhancing Electrochemical Emission Spectroscopy (EES) as a corrosion monitoring technique. The work has yielded a number of important findings, including an unequivocal demonstration of the role of chloride ion in passivity breakdown on nickel in terms of cation vacancy generation within the passive film, the first detection and characterization of individual micro fracture events in stress corrosion cracking, and the determination of kinetic parameters for the generation and annihilation of point defects in the passive film on iron. These latter data are now being used to deterministically predict the accumulation of general and localized corrosion damage on carbon in prototypical DOE liquid waste storage tanks. These findings will be discussed in the presentation, as time permits.
- Research Organization:
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Materials LifeCycle Solutions, Inc. (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC) (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 826149
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 226th American Chemical Society Meeting, New York, NY (US), 09/07/2003--09/11/2003; Other Information: PBD: 10 Sep 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Development of Advanced Electrochemical Emission Spectroscopy for Monitoring Corrosion in Simulated DOE Liquid Waste
Development of Advanced Electrochemical Emission Spectroscopy for Monitoring Corrosion in Simulated DOE Liquid Waste