Area effect on galvanic corrosion of condenser materials with titanium tubes in nuclear power plants

Titanium tubes have recently been used in condensers of nuclear power plants since titanium has very good corrosion resistance to seawater. However, when it is connected to Cu alloys as tube sheet materials and these Cu alloys are connected to carbon steels as water box materials, it makes significant galvanic corrosion on connected materials. It is expected from electrochemical tests that the corrosion rate of carbon steel will increase when it is galvanically coupled with Ti or Cu in sea water and the corrosion rate of Cu will increase when it is coupled with Ti, of this couple is exposed to sea water for a long time. It is also expected that the surface area ratios, R1 (surface area of carbon steel/surface area of Ti) and R2 (surface area of carbon steel/surface area of Cu) are very improtant for the galvanic corrosion of carbon steel and that these should not be kept to low values in order to minimize the galvanic corrosion on the carbon steel of the water box. Immersed galvanic corrosion tests show that the corrosion rate of carbon steel is 4.4 mpy when this ratio is 10-2. The galvanic corrosion rate of this carbon steel is increased from 4.4 mpy to 13 mpy at this area ratio, 1, when this connected galvanic specimen is galvanically coupled with a Ti tube. This can be rationalized by the combined effects of R1 and R2 on the polarization curve. (Author)