Influence of temperature on AISI 316L corrosion in phosphoric acid solutions under hydrodynamic conditions

AISI 316L stainless steel, due to its good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, is widely used in the phosphoric acid industry, including piping lines. However, phosphoric acid (H3PO4) is a medium-strong acid, and corrosion problems could occur, especially working with concentrated solutions and increasing temperature. Furthermore, fluid flow can increase corrosion rates. The objective of this work is to study the dynamic corrosion of AISI 316L stainless steel in a range of temperature from 25 C to 60 C by means of cyclic potentiodynamic curves. A hydrodynamic circuit was used in order to study dynamic corrosion. The experiments were carried out in an oxygen-free environment at different Reynolds numbers: 1,456, 3,166 and 5,066. The results show that uniform corrosion mechanisms can be expected for AISI 316L stainless steel in 5.5 M H3PO4 solutions, since no hysteresis loop was observed. Moreover, temperature affects the corrosion parameters obtained from the polarization curves. Temperature shifts corrosion potential to nobler values, reduces the passivity region and enhances passivation current density. On the other hand, little influence of Reynolds number was observed on AISI 316L stainless steel corrosion. (authors)