The effect of environmental variables on early corrosion of high-strength low-alloy mooring steel immersed in seawater

The purpose of this paper is to investigate into the effect of three environmental variables - temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen - on the corrosion behaviour of two steel grades used for mooring chains and to develop an empirical model intended to link these variables with the corrosion rate. A full-factorial experiment was designed on the basis of the statistical analysis of the objective data on the ocean water conditions corresponding to nine regions of Atlantic, Indic and Arctic oceans. A practical uncoupled method to determine the corrosion rate of these steel grades as function of the water conditions was developed.