It is essential to address the material compatibility issues pertaining to the ethanol blended fuels in vehicles especially for vintage vehicles for their components reliability due to corrosion. Material compatibility testing (MCT) is a common practice to study the corrosion effect of bio-blended fuel on metals and coatings.

There are several corrosion tests methods such SAE J 17471, ASTM G-312 and corrosion wheel test which can be used for material compatibility testing (MCT). In view of the issues pertaining to vehicles, SAE recommended test method SAE J 17471 could be more suitable for MCT. The present MCT study was carried out using coupons of various metals and coatings such as carbon steel, copper, brass, Al-bronze, hexavalent passivation, trivalent passivation, zinc zassivation etc. used in automotives for 10% blended gasoline (E10) using SAE J 17471 and corrosion wheel test for comparison of the findings.

The MCT was carried out on test coupons exposed to E10 at 45°C continuously for 3 months. The exposed coupons were evaluated for change in appearance and weight loss during the testing and also at the end of the testing as per the testing protocol. The study revealed physical appearance change in brass and copper coupons with E10 gasoline in comparison with the non-blended gasoline. However no effect on the rest metals and coatings for corrosion rate, weight loss and appearance had been observed in comparison with non-blended petrol (E0). These findings indicate that there is material compatibility for E10 gasoline for the studied metals as per the selected method. However under non standard dynamic wheel test revealed higher corrosion rates which emphasizes the need for addressing dynamic situation in the standard corrosion test practices for MCT.

Subject
Test methods, Zinc rich coatings, Materials, Corrosion rate, Steel coupons, Bottles, Inspection, Weight loss coupons, Metals, Weight loss, Passivation, Carbon steel, Brass
Keywords:
Material compatibility, Ethanol blended petrol, Corrosion rate, weight loss study
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2011
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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