A quantitative phase-field model for crevice corrosion

Abstract

A quantitative phase-field model is developed for the investigation of crevice corrosion of iron in salt water. Six types of ionic species and some associated chemical reactions have been considered. In addition to the transient distributions of ion concentrations and electric potential in the electrolyte, some physical and chemical properties related to corrosion, such as overpotential, pH value and corrosion rate, under different metal potentials are studied. Benchmarking of the phase-field model against a sharp interface model is conducted. The corrosion rates predicted by the models are in the same order of magnitudes with experimental results.