Abstract. All structural steels offer economical properties of mean strength and low corrosion resistance. There are ferritic-perlitic steels and very often used as construction materials in industrial applications. The purpose of this article is to investigate corrosion resistance using weight loss and profile roughness parameters of typical structural steel in grade S235JR in 20 % NaCl solution in distilled water. Corrosion tests show that the tested steel in both corrosive environments is characterized through continuous corrosion. Roughness parameters for every of the research times determine the size of steel corrosion.Keywords: steel, structural steel, carbon steel, corrosion, corrosion rate, profile roughness.
IntroductionSteel is the most popular constructional material. The mechanical, physical and chemical properties of low carbon steel are under the influence of different factors, including the chemical composition and manufacturing technology.The properties and practical applications of all constructional materials, including steel, are determined mostly by their microstructure. The structural low carbon steels have a ferritic-perlitic microstructure. The percentage of each microstructure phase shapes the properties of the steel. The microstructure depends on the manufacturing technology and heat treatments of steel. Corrosion resistance is an important factor of the quality and application of structural steels [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].Low-carbon steel as a construction material is also very popular. Steels from this group have wide range of industrial applications, mainly as a welded material. The microstructure and properties of these steels are still tested to improve the quality. These steels are willingly used because they are cheap and well welded. Steel structures with low-carbon structural steel can be built by welding quickly at a low price, but still the main problem is their corrosion protection [13][14][15][16].The influence of inner structural stresses caused by the corrosion notches as well as stresses resulting from production with stresses resulting from external load plays an important role in premature destruction of the construction by formation and development of initiation cracks and cracks. Structural stresses also depend on the percentage of each phase in the microstructure and their shape. Microstructure morphology is shaped in the process of manufacturing, heat treatment and welding processes. Corrosion processes are able to extract metal atoms from the metal lattice, which atoms during the process pass to corrosion products. Corrosion causing local diffusion of metal atoms is particularly dangerous [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. The problem is huge because low-carbon structural steel is sensitive to corrosion. The corrosion rate first of all depends on different environment [2; 5; 13; 20].One of the corrosive environmental factors are chlorides. They are mainly found on the coast as an aerosol of sea water, and in large quantities in large industrial ar...