While a great mass of general information is available on the deterioration of outdoor metals and structures, its application to any specific engineering task of structure design or maintenance requires considerable individual analysis and selection. The following is an attempt at some generalization of the problem.
In Part 1, it was shown that the service life of a structural unit is a simple function of its parameters and their rate of change:
and
Thus if the value for R and the variations of P' with time could be found, the problem of structure maintenance would be solved, P being a constant fixed by the design loading and original strength of the particular structural unit.
It is well known that atmospheric attack is quite variable among similar units, even under controlled exposure. Also,...
