A study was undertaken to investigate galvanic corrosion between copper alloy tubesheets and selected tubing materials under simulated seawater condenser conditions. The study focused primarily on two tubing alloys — Allegheny Ludlum's 6X stainless steel alloy and TIMET's Ti-50A, a commercially pure titanium alloy. The results of 7 months simulated laboratory testing suggest: (1) the use of either titanium or AL-6X tubes with a,copper alloy tubesheet can result in significant galvanic corrosion of the tubesheet; (2) titanium tubes will tend to galvanically corrode a copper alloy tubesheet at a higher rate than stainless steel tubes in seawater; (3) as a tubesheet material, aluminum bronze is significantly less susceptible to galvanic corrosion than the Muntz alloy; (4) a Muntz alloy tubesheet can be expected to dezincify at rates exceeding 2.5 mm/y, when coupled to either titanium or AL 6X tubes; (5) galvanic corrosion will tend to be worse on inlet end tubesheets than on outlet end tubesheets; (6) galvanic corrosion of copper alloy tubesheets will double with every 10°C rise in cooling water (seawater) temperature.

Subject
Stainless alloys, Corrosion rate, Aluminum, Tubes, Seawater, Bronze, Copper alloys, Condensers, Titanium, Aluminum alloys, Galvanic current, Titanium alloys, Galvanic corrosion
© 1981 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
1981
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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