Corrosion Properties of Structured Sheet Metals in Salt Environment

In the present paper the corrosion properties of structured sheet metals were investigated. The aim of this work is to determinate the influence of the structuring process on the corrosion resistance of sheet metals. For this purpose, these sheets were examined by accelerated tests in corrosion chamber. The investigation was carried out using salt spray test. The experiment was conducted for the low carbon steel DC04 in 5% NaCl environment. As a measure of corrosion damage, the weight loss was taken. The experiments point out that the steel weight loss is increasing appreciably with duration of the corrosive environment exposure. The results are presented for structured and smooth sheet metals as reference. A clear effect of the structuring process on the corrosion behaviour was observed. The results of the salt spray test show that structured sheet metals have a higher corrosion rate than smooth sheet metals. Structured sheets at the structure location “positive” have a lower corrosion rate than at the structure location “negative”. The difference of corrosion properties between structured and smooth sheet metals is becoming increasingly apparent with advancing corrosion process. The regression models were developed for the weight loss rate as function of exposure time. Furthermore, the thickness reduction of structured and smooth sheet metals was calculated.