Stainless steel water piping, used to supply coolant for remote chemical separations equipment, developed several leaks during low-flow conditions resulting from an extended interruption of operations. All the leaks occurred at welds in the bottom zone of the pipe, which was blanketed with silt deposits from the unfiltered well water used for cooling. Ultrasonic, radiographic, and metallographic examinations of the leak sites revealed worm-hole pitting adjacent to the welds. Seepage at the penetrations was strongly acidic and resulted in corrosion on the external pipe surfaces beneath brown crusty deposits which had developed. Analyses of the water and deposits suggested a strong propensity toward microbiologically-influenced corrosion (MIC) and fouling.

Subject
Weld attack, Pipe surfaces, Water, Materials, Piping, Metal surfaces, Walls, Leaks, Metallography, Tubercles, Pitting, Deposit corrosion, Voids
Keywords:
corrosion, water leak, MIC, environmental effects
© 1995 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).
1995
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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