Mechanical integrity of corrosion product films on rotating cylinder specimens

• Mechanical assessment of corrosion product films on rotating cylinder is performed.
• Inertial stresses can affect the integrity of the corrosion product films.
• FeCO3 films can be fractured due to rotating cylinder testing.
• The improper use of rotating cylinder apparatus can lead to erroneous results.

Rotating cylinder (RC) technique is widely used for flow corrosion testing. However, this test configuration has limitations. Particularly, integrity of corrosion products films formed on the RC surface can be affected. The objective of this work is to show how intense the stresses in corrosion product films can be at high rotation speeds. In such cases, failure of the films is possible due to inertial forces rather than other factors, such as flow, leading to erroneous results. Consequently, theoretical calculation of stresses in films has been performed and a case of corrosion product film failure assessed using a fracture mechanics approach.