1.7 Functional Aspects of Corrosion

Corrosion may severely affect the following functions of metals, plant and equipment

1. Impermeability: Environmental constituents must not be allowed to enter pipes, process equipment, food containers, tanks, etc. to minimize the possibility of corrosion.

2. Mechanical strength: Corrosion should not affect the capability to withstand specified loads and its strength should not be undermined by corrosion.

3. Dimensional integrity: Maintaining dimensions is critical to engineering designs and they should not be affected by corrosion.

4. Physical properties: For efficient operation, the physical properties of plants, equipment and materials such as thermal conductivity and electrical properties, should not be allowed to be adversely affected by corrosion.

5. Contamination: Corrosion, if allowed to build up, can contaminate processing equipment, food products, drugs and pharmaceutical products and endanger health and environmental safety.

6. Damage to equipment: Equipment next to the one which has suffered corrosion failure may be damaged.

Realizing that corrosion effectively blocks or impairs the functions of metals, plants and equipment, appropriate measures must be adopted to minimize the loss or efficiency of function.