Pitting Corrosion of Copper Soft Tubes in Well Water

Copper Tube Pitting in Santa Fe Municipal Water Caused by Microbial Induced Corrosion

Many copper water lines for municipal drinking water in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA, have developed pinhole leaks. The pitting matches the description of Type I pitting of copper, which has historically been attributed to water chemistry and to contaminants on the copper tubing surface. However, more recent studies attribute copper pitting to microbial induced corrosion (MIC). In order to test for...

Pitting Corrosion Monitoring Using Acoustic Emission

Microbiologically induced corrosion of copper pipes in low-pH water

The aim of this paper was to study the influence of microbial biofilms on the high copper levels measured in the drinking water of rural houses. Drinking water parameters and copper pipe surfaces were analysed in the copper plumbing systems of rural and urban houses. The water in rural houses had pH values of 6.2 and alkalinity values of 63mg/L as CaCO3, whereas in urban houses the pH values we...

Characterization of pitting corrosion in aluminum films by light scattering

We report a detailed study of the morphology of pits formed by corrosion of aluminum thin films using an in-plane light scattering technique. We show that the corrosion front of the Al thin film can be treated as a quasi-two-level random rough surface. Based on an elastic diffraction theory, we are able to determine the average depth, the area, and the density of pits, as well as the fractal di...

Numerical Simulation of Material Strength Deterioration due to Pitting Corrosion

Pitting corrosion is an insidious form of localized corrosion a ecting characteristics of various engineering metallic alloys. Currently very limited literature exists with regard to systematic characterization of pitted surfaces or the efficient use of numerical methods to assess its effect, i.e. fatigue life reduction caused by the state of a corroded specimen and particularly through the stu...