Comparison of erosion corrosion of titanium and stainless steel in seawater

The application of Stainless steel and Titanium alloy had been rising in marine application that promoted this study to investigate erosion corrosion behaviour for Stainless steel grade 301 and Titanium. Erosion corrosion test were conducted for both material at constant rate velocity, 900 rpm and at ambient temperature in the range 27oC-30oC. The erosion corrosion were carried out by immersing specimens in an aqueous 3.5%NaCl and presence of 10 wt % sand particles. The erosion corrosion tests were done by using electrochemical test which involve oxidation and reduction process. Graphite is use as counter electrode while specimens as working electrode and saturated calomel electrode (SCE) as reference electrode. Potentiodynamic polarization has been carried out by using potentiostat model WPG100i with potential scan rate use is 20 and potential range of -0.8V until 0.2V. Analysis of image and surface roughness, were taken before and after erosion corrosion test. Titanium alloy show small pitting form and low value of surface roughness compare to Stainless steel. The full observation on the result from the test shows that corrosion rate of Stainless steel is higher than the corrosion rate for Titanium alloy