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An extensive investigation has been in progress since 1940 in the Panama Canal Zone to study the corrosion rates and characteristics of fifty different metals and alloys exposed to five natural tropical environments for periods of one, two, four, eight, and sixteen years. Up to the present, specimens through the eight year period have been removed and examined. The report describes the corrosion rate of aluminum, lead, nickel, zinc, and copper along with structural steel. Corrosion data for these metals as observed in the five environments have been obtained from weight loss and pitting measurements, visual inspection and physical property studies. Corrosion rates for these metals in the tropics are related to corrosion rates previously reported for these metals in temperate latitudes. 2.2.2

Corrosion of ten structural steels exposed to tropical sea and fresh waters has been evaluated following an eight-year exposure period. The severity of corrosion is compared between the natural tropical environments of sea water mean tide, and sea water and fresh water continuous immersion, and correlated with similar corrosion tests that have been made on the east and west coasts of the United States. Corrosion resistance for mild carbon steel is compared when exposed with millscale, pickled, and machined surfaces. Underwater corrosion rates are compared for unalloyed carbon steel, copper-bearing steel, steels containing small percentages of nickel and chromium, and proprietary low-alloy steels. A comprehensive evaluation of the measured and observed effects of corrosion is given for the ten steels following exposure in each of the tropical environments. 2.2.7

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Seven-, six-, three-, and one-year exposures have provided quantitative data on the ability of organic coating systems to protect metals from the five corrosion environments characteristic of tropical latitudes. Data are reported on the performance of more than 350 coating systems in which alkyds, epoxys, synthetic rubbers, phenolics, vinyls and bitumens were used singly or in combinations and mixtures. 2.2.5