The incidence of flow-accelerated corrosion, commonly known as FAC, continues unabated throughout many industries. FAC failures, sometimes catastrophic, are not limited to gas-fired combined-cycle power plants where many failures have occurred, especially in the past 20 years. It has also been reported extensively in conventional fossil power plants, nuclear energy units as well as the hydrocarbon, chemical processing industries and pulp & paper plants. FAC is a growing phenomenon and an insidious type of failure despite industry efforts to mitigate it. The author, an engineer who has over 20 years of first-hand experience with FAC, expands on the fundamentals of the current understanding of FAC and the mechanisms of the various types of this debilitating and costly type of corrosion. The paper discusses the key variables at play – system hydrodynamics, materials of construction, operating practices, as well as the impact of water chemistry. Regrettably, misleading interpretations exist about the FAC mechanisms that often offset mitigation efforts. The paper provides pragmatic insight on the main root causes and amelioration strategies.

Subject
Water, Materials, Impingement, Turbulent flow, Tubes, Flow velocity, Industries, Water chemistry, Feedwater, Flow assisted corrosion, Power plants, Boilers, Steam
Keywords:
flow-accelerated corrosion, flow-assisted corrosion, erosion-corrosion, fluid hydrodynamics
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2017
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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