Accelerated Corrosion Testing Versus Field Exposure of Steel Coatings Exposed to Marine Environments

Accelerated Corrosion Testing (ACT) of coatings has been associated with the ASTM B117 Salt Fog Test[1] (or BS3900[2] and ISO 7253[3]). Other types of ACT for coatings use “salt spray” test, ASS and CASS tests (which use acetic acid and acetic acid with copper chloride). Most recently, ACT of coatings is made under the presence of gases[4]. The objective of these tests is to try to mimic the wetting and drying cycles that occur naturally with the addition of a known acceleration factor[5].

These standard tests do not accurately predict the performance of the coatings in real service conditions.

The objective of this paper is to compare different ACT methods with exposure to real environments. The second objective is to present the ongoing work on different coatings and top-coats that were tested using both ACT methods and exposed to field conditions.

References:

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[1] ASTM B117 – 07

[2] BSI BS 3900-F4

[3] ISO 7253:1996