212th ECS Meeting, Abstract #959, © The Electrochemical Society Current Distribution on a Cathode Covered by a Thin Film Electrolyte in Crevice Corrosion – An Analyt cal Model i

Crevice corrosion is a common mode of localized corrosion which may affect the long-term performance of corrosion resistant alloys. For crevice corrosion to propagate, the anodic dissolution current within the crevice must be matched by a cathodic process (typically, oxygen reduction) on the exposed metallic portion which is moistened by a thin electrolyte film. Limitations imposed by the thin electrolyte film may limit the ability of the external cathode to support anodic dissolution within the crevice. Previous related analytical studies have focused on galvanic corrosion and are mostly limited to current distribution analysis for linear electrode kinetics.1,2 More recent studies of the cathodic current capacity are based on numerical solutions of the potential field for specific