Abstract
Mass transfer studies of corrosion of iron and steel are reviewed. It is demonstrated through corrosion experiments under well defined hydrodynamic conditions that corrosion of iron and mild steel in acidic and neutral solutions of pH>1.0 takes place under diffusion control with dissolved oxygen as the diffusion-rate determining species and that the rates of corrosion calculated with mass transfer equations and correlations fitted for electrochemical systems are in good agreement with observed rates of corrosion of iron and mild steel with no rust formation (pH 1-3) for the following cases: forced laminar and turbulent flow in pipes, rotating rods in forced turbulent flow, and rotating disk electrodes in forced laminar flow. For diffusion of oxygen through porous rust layers on iron, a treatment based on diffusion through heterogenous media is suggested.
