The Effect of Heat Treatments on the Corrosion Rate of Hypo-eutectoid Steel in the Water and Salt Environments

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the effect of three types of heat treatments (Annealing-Quenching-Tempering) on the Hypo-eutectoid steel corrosion rate in water and salt solutions. The results showed that the maximum corrosion rate was registered for the steel samples treated by quenching in both solutions, and minimum corrosion rate for tempered samples, while the corrosion rate of annealed steel samples was between them. It was found also the corrosion rate of all samples were exposed to salt solution was greater than that in water solution. The results showed also that the corrosion rate of all samples decrease with increasing the time of exposing to the corrosion media. This is because the corrosion product which form the isolation film protect the metal from further corrosion.