The present study has been conducted to investigate the interaction between corrosion and erosion processes and quantify synergism in realistic flow environments, across sudden pipe contraction, sudden pipe expansion, and a protrusion. Tests were conducted on a carbon steel, AISI 1018, using 1% sodium chloride (NaCl) solution purged with CO 2 as the corrosive media and silica sand as the erodent. Linear polarization resistance and weight loss are the techniques used for the measurements. The experiments were conducted in a large scale flow loop at a fixed temperature of 34°C and absolute pressure of 1.2 bar. All experimental conditions were monitored regularly during each experiment. The loop was cleaned before each experiment, and fresh sand was used for each erosion or erosion-corrosion experiment.
The experiments were designed to understand whether erosion enhances corrosion or corrosion enhances erosion and to evaluate the contribution of the individual processes to net synergism. It was observed that erosion enhances corrosion and corrosion enhances erosion, with each contributing to significant synergism. However, the dominant process was the effect of corrosion on erosion.