Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Two-dimensional numerical model and fast estimation method for

calculating crevice corrosion of cross-sea bridges
Cui Chuanjie, Chen Airong, Pan Zichao ⇑, Ma Rujin
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 200092 Shanghai, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Numerical model is created to

c − pH
analyze crevice corrosion of cross-sea Mass-transfer
equaons
bridges.

Tensile stress significantly increase
Current density
the crevice corrosion rate. Numerical Model
equaons

Simple formula is presented to fast Analycal model based on parametric analysis

y Electric
estimate the crevice corrosion rate. Holiday Disbonded Coang
neutralizaon
,
Normal Coang principle 0.3825
Significant influence: tensile stress,
3.69 × 10−8 ∙ 0.92 − 0.0434 0.0035
,
a x/a
x Crevice
Conservaon law
= ≤ 10
of electric charge No obvious influence: crevice width,
Deposits Steel Box Girder 3.0 × 10−8 0.0035 ,
concentraon of −
> 10

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Crevice corrosion commonly occurs in cross-sea bridges when the coating is disbonded and a holiday
Received 4 July 2018 appears because of construction defects or environmental influences. A two-dimensional numerical
Received in revised form 26 October 2018 model is developed to predict the crevice corrosion rate as well as its time-varying laws considering
Accepted 16 February 2019
the adsorption of chloride ion. The mass-transfer equations, current density equations, electric neutral-
ization principle and conservation law of electric charge are all included in the numerical model. Some
parameters which may influence the corrosion rate are analyzed in a parametric study. The results show
Keywords:
that the tensile stress has significant impacts to the crevice corrosion rate while the effects from the cre-
Crevice corrosion
Cross-sea bridges
vice width, concentration of chloride ion and corrosion time are less obvious. Based on the results and
Adsorption discussion, an empirical formula is finally proposed for a fast estimation of the crevice corrosion rate
Numerical simulation for the durability design and performance evaluation of cross-sea bridges.
Analytical model Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction be effectively prevented if reasonable counter-measures are taken,

Corrosion is one of the most significant threats to marine steel
structures. According to the report in [1], the economic loss caused
by corrosion in the United States from 1999 to 2001 could be
amounted to 276 billion dollars, accounting for 3.1% of the total
value of production in national economy. The collapse accidents
of Ohio Bridge in 1967 and Alexander-Gillard drilling platform in
1980 caused by corrosion both resulted in devastating economic
loss, environmental pollution and casualties. Steel corrosion can
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: z.pan@tongji.edu.cn (Z. Pan).
e.g., cathodic protection. For the cross-sea bridge, the cathodic
protection is usually applied in the steel component directly
immersed in the water, e.g., foundation, cushion cap. For the steel
components, e.g., main girder and pylons, which are usually
located in marine atmospheric zones instead of splash and immer-
sion zones, the cathodic protection system is seldom used. For
these components, coating is one of the most efficient protection
methods. However, narrow crevices are often observed on the sur-
face of steel components due to the initial defects and environmen-
tal attacks, as shown in Fig. 1. The penetration of the corrosion
medium such as gas, water and chloride ion through the narrow
crevices can initiate the crevice corrosion and result in the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.02.103
0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
684 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693
Fig. 1. Crevice of coating in cross-sea bridges.
structural cracks [2]. The process of crevice corrosion mainly
depends on the transport of ionic species and the dynamic electro-
chemical reactions inside the crevice [3,4].
At present, a lot of studies on the crevice corrosion in pipe-
line structures have been conducted all over the world. In a ser-
ies of research, Song et al. [5–10] established a scientific theory
for calculating crevice corrosion in pipelines and a number of
analyses were carried out considering different corrosion envi-
ronments and simplified models. Brackman et al. [11] investi-
gated the crevice corrosion of Nickel by assuming that the
properties of the electrolyte inside the crevice are unchanged
with the locations, and the results agree well with the experi-
mental data. Wang et al. [12,13] studied the crevice corrosion
of buried pipelines considering the cathodic protection by both
experimental and numerical methods to show the efficiency
and convenience of the numerical method in engineering prac-
tices. Bode plots and Nyquist plots of the crevice corrosion were
tested using experiment methods to obtain the tendency of elec-
trochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) [14,15]. Some detailed
studies were also conducted considering different corrosion con-
ditions such as the sulfate ion in solution and other components
[16–18], CO2 -saturated NaCl solution [19] and bacteria in soil
[20]. However, most of the above studies mainly focused on
the mechanism study and numerical simulation method of the
crevice corrosion, while simplified formula for engineering prac-
tice is seldom reported at present. Besides, most of these studies
were conducted in one dimension, which cannot consider the
spatial variability of the chloride ion in the thickness direction
of the steel component.
The above studies on the crevice corrosion of pipelines buried in
ground can offer a reasonable reference to the corrosion issue of
cross-sea steel bridges. However, compared with pipelines, cross-
sea bridges have the following differences:
(1) Pipelines are often designed with a cathodic protection
[21,22].
(2) Corrosion of pipelines is influenced by the bacteria in soil
which is not the main concern to cross-sea bridges.
(3) Most cross-sea bridges are under operation with high-level
stress which can effectively increase the corrosion rate.
(4) Compared with buried pipelines, it is more convenient to
inspect and repair the coatings on the surface of steel com-
ponents in cross-sea bridges.
Considering to the above differences, it is expected that, through
this research, a two-dimensional numerical model for the crevice
corrosion of cross-sea bridges can be developed and the simplified
formula can be established for an engineering purpose to fast esti-
mate the crevice corrosion rate to help the optimization of mainte-
nance strategy of coatings in cross-sea bridges. The whole
structure of this paper is organized as follows. Firstly, the analysis
theory and governing equations of the crevice corrosion for numer-
ical simulation are introduced based on the study in [5]. Secondly,
the governing equations are solved by COMSOL and MATLAB to
obtain the time and space variation of reaction components and cor-
rosion current densities. Thirdly, the parametric analyses, including
the effects of chloride ion adsorption, tensile stress, crevice width
and concentration of chloride ion, are conducted to identify the most
significant parameters. Based on the parametric analysis, a simpli-
fied analytical model is finally proposed for the fast estimation of
the crevice corrosion rate in an engineering approach.
2. Fundamental theory
Owing to the initial defects and environmental attacks, tiny cre-
vices between coatings and surface of steel components in cross-
sea bridges usually appear in critical areas during the service life.
The crevice corrosion can be initiated when a holiday is formed
in the disbonded coating area. Since the research object in this
study is the steel-box girder of cross-sea bridges, the crevice corro-
sion can be simplified as a two-dimensional problem, as shown in

Fig. 2. The concentrations of Naþ and Cl in the marine atmo-
spheric environment, which are of great importance in crevice cor-
rosion process [10], are variable with the height above the sea level
and can be calculated as [23]:
cz ¼ c0  e0:057z ð1Þ
where cz ðmol=m3 Þ is the mole concentration at height zðmÞ, c0 is the
mole concentration at the position of z ¼ 0.
2.1. Assumptions and chemical reactions
To simplify the numerical model, the following assumptions are
adopted:
(1) for a complete electrochemical reaction, Fe can be oxidized
to FeðOHÞ2 , FeðOHÞ3 and Fe2 O3 , depending on the environ-
mental conditions such as the temperature, relative humid-
ity and oxygen supply. In this paper, however, only FeðOHÞ2
is considered.
(2) the pressure of H2 in the crevice equals to a standard atmo-
spheric pressure.
(3) the pressure of O2 in the crevice equals to that in the envi-
ronment in the initial state (t ¼ 0), which equals to
0:26mol=m3 according to the Henry’s law [5]:
pO2 ¼ H  cO2 ð2Þ
 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693 685

Fig. 2. A schematic of crevice corrosion in disbonded coating area on surface of steel box girder.

where pO2 ðatmÞ is the pressure of O2 , cO2 ðmol=m3 Þ is the molar con- where qj ðkg=m3 Þ is the density of j, nj ðkg=ðm2  sÞÞ is the mass veloc-
centration of O2 . H ¼ 0:8074atm  m =mol is the Henry constant.
3 ity of j.
The accumulation velocity of component j is ð@ qj =@tÞdxdydz.
(4) the concentration of each component in the crevice solution The chemical and electrochemical production rates of component
j are cj dxdydz and cej dxdz, respectively, where cj ðkg=ðm3  sÞÞ and
0 0 0
is uniformly distributed along x directions in the initial state.
(5) the crevice width a is a constant during the crevice corrosion
cej 0 ðkg=ðm2  sÞÞ are the production rates of j caused by the irre-
process.
versible chemical reaction and electrochemical reaction,
respectively.
Above the assumptions, assumption (1) is reasonable since the
In this study, all chemical reactions related to the crevice corro-
exchange of O2 is isolated by the deposits at the holiday and thus
sion are assumed as reversible. Thus, according to the mass conser-
only a limited supply of O2 is available. Assumptions (2), (3) and
vation law, the following mass equilibrium equation can be
(4) have been widely used in almost all of the crevice corrosion
obtained:
simulations [5,7,9,13,16]. The influence of assumption (5) was
evaluated in [9] and the results show that only a small portion of
@njx @njy @ qj cj
e0
regions near the holiday is noticeably affected by the crevice width. þ þ  ¼0 ð9Þ
Based on the above assumptions, the following chemical agents @x @y @t a
exist in the crevice solution during the corrosion process: (1) Naþ , Eq. (9) can be transformed to Eq. (10) when using the mole

(2) Cl , (3) Fe2þ , (4) Hþ (5) OH (6) O2 (aq), (7) H2 (aq), (8) expression:
FeðOHÞ2 (sp), (9) FeOHþ , (10) H2 O. Hence, the chemical reactions
@Njx @Njy @cj cj
e
in the crevice solution are as follows: þ þ  ¼0 ð10Þ
(1) electrochemical reaction @x @y @t a

Anode Fe  2e ¼ Fe2þ r eFe ð3Þ where N jm ðmol=ðm2  sÞÞ is the mole flux of j in m direction
(m ¼ x; y).
Cathode Hþ þ e ¼ 0:5H2 r eH By neglecting the convection effect, according to Nernst-Plank
ð4Þ
2H2 O þ 4e þ O2 ¼ 4OH reo2 equation, the mole flux can be calculated as follows:

(2) ionic equilibrium of water Dj

Nj ¼ zj Fcj ru  Dj rcj ð11Þ
þ 
RT
H2 O
H þ OH c4 c5 ¼ K w ð5Þ
where Dj is the diffusion coefficient of j. D1 ¼ 1:334  109 m2 =s;
(3) precipitation-solution equilibrium
D2 ¼ 2:032  109 m2 =s; D3 ¼ 0:72  109 m2 =s; D4 ¼ 9:312  109 m2 =s;
FeðOHÞ2 þ Hþ
FeOHþ þ H2 O c4 c9 =c3 ¼ K b ð6Þ D5 ¼ 5:26  109 m2 =s; D6 ¼ 1:95  109 m2 =s; D9 ¼ 0:5  109 m2 =s
[25,26]. zj is the valence of j. R ¼ 8:314J=ðmol  KÞ is the gas con-
FeðOHÞ2
Fe2þ þ 2OH c3 c25 ¼ K sp ð7Þ stant. T ¼ 298:15K is the temperature. F ¼ 96485C=mol is the Fara-
day constant. uðVÞ is the overpotential.
where cj ðmol=m Þ is the mole concentration of j,c
3
j ðmol=ðm
e 2
 sÞÞ are
the reaction rate of j caused by the electrochemical reaction, K w , K b
and K sp are the reaction equilibrium constants of corresponding
equations? The values of these parameters can be found in [24].

2.2. Reaction equations

2.2.1. Mass-transfer equations

As shown in Fig. 3, when component j moves from x1 to x2 and
from y1 to y2 by a constant velocity, the net flow of component j is:





qj v j dydz




 qj v j dydz
þ qj v j dxdz



 qj v j dxdz

xþdx x yþdy y





¼ nj dydz
 nj dydz
þ nj dxdz

xþdx x
 nj dxdz

yþdy y
ð8Þ
Fig. 3. A schematic of two-dimensional mass transfer and accumulation.
686 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693

2.2.2. Current density equations of electrode 2.3.2. Boundary conditions

For the electrochemical reaction in the crevice, the current den- The boundary conditions use in the numerical simulation are as
sity could be described by the Tafel equations [5]: follows:
u
ij ¼ ij;0  10bj ðAnodeÞ cj ¼ cout on x ¼ 0 ð18Þ
u ð12Þ j
c
ij ¼ ij;0 c j  10 bj
ðCathodeÞ
j;0
Njx ¼ 0 and ix ¼ 0 on x ¼ L ð19Þ
where ij ðA=m2 Þ is the current density of j, j ¼ 3 and j ¼ 4 for anode
and cathode reactions, respectively. bj is the Tafel slope of j.
ij;0 ðA=m2 Þ is the exchange current density, i3;0 ¼ 2:0  104 A=m2 ;
Njy ¼ 0 on y ¼ 0 ð20Þ
4 11
i4;0 ¼ 2:1  10 A=m2 ; io2 ;0 ¼ 8:0  10 A=m2 [9,27,28].
The relationship between cej and ij can be written as: Njy ¼ 0 and iy ¼ 0 on y ¼ L ð21Þ

ij
cej ¼ ð13Þ where cout
j is the concentration of j in the environment.
nj F
In the above boundary conditions, cj ¼ cout
j means that the con-
where nj is the number of reaction electrons. centrations at the position of x ¼ 0 are equal to those outside
For steel components, the tensile stress can obviously accelerate owing to the free exchange near the holiday. N ji ¼ 0 and ii ¼ 0
the corrosion rate, which can be considered by an additional anode (i ¼ x; y) refer to the zero flux and zero current density, respec-
potential [29]: tively, owing to the influence of the coatings or steel surface.
DP  V m The chloride ion tends to be absorbed to the steel surface in the
u; ¼ ð14Þ crevice solution owing to the adsorption effect. Therefore, if the
RT
adsorption effect is considered, more Hþ will be attracted to the
where u; ðVÞ is the additional anode potential. DPðN=m2 Þ is the ten- steel surface to keep the electric neutralization. Therefore, the local
sile stress. V m is the mole volume (V m ¼ 7:12  106 m3 =mol for acidified condition is formed at the steel surface which leads to the
steel). spatial variability of the chloride ion in y direction.
To consider the adsorption of the chloride ion and the spatial
2.2.3. Conservation law of electric charge variability of the chloride content in y direction, a two-
The conservation law of electric charge is: dimensional mathematical model is needed. Unfortunately, there
X r ej is no related in-site test data since the adsorption of the chloride
ri¼F nj ð15Þ ion is usually ignored in previous studies [5,9,16]. Therefore, sev-
a
j eral distribution types of the chloride content in y direction, e.g.,
where i is the current density vector of crevice solution according to parabola distribution, linear distribution and bilinear distribution,
the Nernst-Plank-Faraday equation: are assumed and analyzed to evaluate the adsorption of the chlo-
X ride ion on the crevice corrosion process.
i¼ zj FNj ð16Þ
j
  0.120
where N j ¼ N jx ; N jy is the mole flux vector.
In conclusion, the variation of each component in the whole 0.105
Corro on current density (A/m2 )

reaction process is dominated by the mass-transfer equation, i.e.,

0.090
Eq. (10), while the conservation law of electric charge, i.e., Eq.
(15) and the electric neutralization principle, 0.075
X
zj cj ¼ 0 ð17Þ 0.060 TDM, 0 s

should be also satisfied at the same time. 0.045 TDM, 10e7 s

FMSM, 10e7 s
2.3. Initial conditions and boundary conditions 0.030 FMSM, 0 s
0.015
2.3.1. Initial conditions
Combining Eqs. (1), Eqs. (5)–(7) and the electric neutralization
P 0.000
principle zj cj ¼ 0, the ion concentrations could be calculated in 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Table 1 without considering the adsorption of chloride ion. Obvi- x/a
ously, the initial conditions are affected a lot by the height of the
Fig. 4. Comparison results of corrosion current density by TDM and FMSM.
steel component above the sea level.

Table 1
Initial ion concentration at different heights (mol=m3 ).

Ions Naþ (c1 Þ Cl (c2 Þ Fe2þ (c3 Þ Hþ (c4 Þ OH (c5 Þ FeOHþ (c9 Þ

z ¼ 0m 428 498 34.87 4.38e-5 2.28e-4 0.252

z ¼ 10m 242 282 19.70 3.29e-5 3.04e-4 0.189
z ¼ 20m 137 159 11.12 2.47e-5 4.04e-4 0.142
z ¼ 30m 77.4 90.1 6.28 1.86e-5 5.38e-4 0.107
z ¼ 40m 42.8 49.8 3.46 1.38e-5 7.25e-4 0.079
z ¼ 50m 24.8 28.8 1.99 1.05e-5 9.55e-4 0.060
 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693 687

Fig. 5. Plot of concentration of Cl and pH of crevice solution as a function of time and distance from holiday at steel surface.

8.0 2.4. Solution procedure

7.8 t=0 Based on the discussions in Section 2.2, the equation system for
t=1800 s (0.5 h) the crevice corrosion contains Eqs. (10), (15) and (17). With the ini-
t=3600 s (1 h) tial and boundary conditions in Section 2.3, the unknown variables,
7.6
i.e., c1 ; c2 ; c3 ; c4 ; c5 ; c6 ; c9 as the concentrations of ions and u as
t=10800 s (3 h)
potential, in the equation system can be solved by the following
pH

7.4 t=86400 s (1 day) procedure.

7.2 (1) A spatial domain with a reasonable size is adopted. In this

study, the proper size of the domain is dependent on the cre-
7.0 vice width. When the crevice width increases, the domain
size in the depth (x) direction also increases to keep the ratio
6.8 of the domain dimensions (x vs. y) in two directions
constant.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
x/a (2) The spatial domain is then meshed with a reasonable den-
sity. The mesh size should be small enough to obtain an
Fig. 6. Plot pH as a function of x=a at different corrosion time. accuracy result.

1.95 1.95

1.90 t=0 s t=0 s

1.90
Corro on current density (A/m2 )
Corro on current density (A/m2 )

1.85 t=3600 s (1 h) t=3600 s (1 h)

1.85
1.80 t=86400 s (1 day) t=86400 s (1 day)
1.80
1.75 t=2.59e6 s (1 month) t=2.59e6 s (1 month)
1.75
1.70 t=3.15e7 s (1 year) t=3.15e7 s (1 year)
1.70
1.65
Overlapped when t=1 day, 1 month, 1 year Overlapped when t=1 day,
1.60 1.65
1 month, 1 year
1.55 1.60

1.50 1.55
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
x/a x/a

Fig. 7. Plot of corrosion current density as a function of x=a in different corrosion time.
688 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693

(3) The relation between cej and u is obtained by Eqs. (12), (13) discussed in Section 2.3.2 should be considered. In this model ver-
and (14). ification, the following type of the adsorption effect is adopted,
(4) By introducing the above relation and Eq. (11), the unknown  
y y2
variables in Eq. (10) become cj and u. c2 ð0; y; t Þ ¼ c2 ð0; 0; t Þ  1  2  þ 2 ð22Þ
a a
(5) The finite difference method (FDM) is used to solve the vari-
ables cj and u by Eqs. (10), (15) and (17). where c2 ð0; 0; tÞ equals to the concentration of the chloride ion in
the atmospheric environment.
Note that Eqs. (10), (15) and (17) are coupled. Therefore, an iter- Fig. 4 shows the results of the proposed two-dimensional model
ation is conducted in each step during the solution. In this study, (TDM) and F.M. Song’s model (FMSM). As can be seen, the corro-
the equation system is solved by COMSOL and MATLAB. sion current density calculated by TDM is slightly higher than that
of FMSM near the holiday and tends to be coincident far from the
holiday. The main reason for the slight difference is that the
3. Results and discussion adsorption of the chloride ion is considered in TDM. A further dis-
cussion on the adsorption effect can be found in Section 3.3.1.
3.1. Model verification
3.2. Illustrative case study
The numerical model should be verified by other convincing
studies. Since the crevice corrosion of pipelines has already been To show the application of the proposed numerical model in the
widely studied, the research work conducted in [5] is adopted for simulation of the crevice corrosion in cross-sea bridges, a case
the verification. As a comparison, the parameters used in the study where z ¼ 40m, which stands for the common height of
numerical model and the analysis in [5] are kept the same. For the steel-box girder above the sea level, is conducted in this
the two-dimensional model, the adsorption of the chloride ion section. The initial molar concentrations of different species at this

−
a) b)


Fig. 8. Concentration of Cl and pH in crevice solution without considering adsorption of chloride ion.

1.65 1.65
1.64 t=0 s t=0 s
1.64
Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

1.63 t=3600 s (1 h) t=3600 s (1 h)

1.63
1.62 t=86400 s (1 day) t=86400 s (1 day)
1.62
1.61 t=2.59e6 s (1 month) t=2.59e6 s (1 month)
1.61
1.60 t=3.15e7 s (1 year)
t=3.15e7 s (1 year) 1.60
Overlapped when t=1 day,
1.59 1.59 1 month, 1 year
1.58 Overlapped, all of the lines 1.58

1.57 1.57

1.56 1.56

1.55 1.55
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
x/a x/a

Fig. 9. Current density variety under different corrosion time without considering adsorption of chloride ion.
 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693 689

height can be found in Table 1. The crevice width used in this case in Fig. 11. As can be seen, the quadratic distribution of the chloride
study is a ¼ 0:1mm, while the tensile stress is assumed as ion leads to the largest current density. Since there is no convincing
200 MPa. To solve the equations in the numerical model, a two- research data on the adsorption of the chloride ion, the quadratic
dimensional spatial domain with the size of Lx ¼ 100a; Ly ¼ a is distribution may be used as a safer choice for the design and main-
adopted. The mesh size is lx ¼ ly ¼ 0:2a. The time step is 1 s (when tenance of cross-sea bridges.
t < 120s), 120 s (when 120s < t < 1day) and 1800 s (when
1day < t < 1year). The distribution type of the adsorption effect 3.3.2. Tensile stress
used this illustrative case study is shown in Eq. (24). Based on Eq. (14), the effect of the tensile stress on the corrosion
The results of the molar concentration of the chloride ion at the current density is analyzed. The results are plotted in Fig. 12. The
steel surface are plotted as a function of the time (t) and distance
from the holiday (x=a) in Fig. 5a). As can be seen, along with the
crevice corrosion, the chloride concentration gradually increases
with both t and x=a and tends to reach a stable value in the position
far from the holiday.
Based on the molar concentration of H+, pH at the steel surface
can be calculated aspH ¼ logðcHþ Þ. The results are also plotted as
a function of t and x=a in Fig. 5b). As it can be observed, pH in the
solution drastically decreases near the crevice holiday and at the
beginning of corrosion, and then tends to be unchangeable. This
result is reasonable in that under the adsorption effect, chloride
ions gradually accumulate at the surface of the steel-box girder.
Thus, H+ is needed at the steel surface to keep the electric neutral-
ization correspondingly. To have a clearer understanding of the
tendency, a two-dimensional plot of Fig. 5b) is presented in Fig. 6.
The results of the corrosion current density at the steel surface
Fig. 10. Different distribution types caused by adsorption of chloride ion.
are plotted as a function of x=a in Fig. 7a). As can be seen, the cur-
rent density firstly increases and then decreases slightly to a stable
value along with the crevice corrosion process. To get a clearer
understanding, the variation of the corrosion current density at
1.95
the vicinity of the holiday is replotted as a function of x=a in
Fig. 7b). The result clearly shows that the corrosion current density 1.90 No adsorp on
Corrosion current density (A/m2)

continuously decreases with an increasing x=a, especially at the

1.85 Quadra c distribu on
vicinity of the holiday. It is also noticeable that the corrosion cur-
rent density almost remains the same after 24 h. 1.80 Linear distribu on
1.75 Bilinear distribu on
3.3. Parametric analysis 1.70

Based on the illustrative case study in Section 3.2, in this sec- 1.65
tion, a parametric analysis is further conducted to evaluation the 1.60
effects of various kinds of factors such as the chloride adsorption,
1.55
tensile stress, crevice width and concentration of the chloride ion
on the crevice corrosion. The main purpose of the parametric anal- 1.50
ysis is to identify the most significant influencing factors and pro- 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
pose an analytical model for fast evaluation of crevice corrosion x/a
rate for cross-sea bridges in engineering practice. The parameters
Fig. 11. Corrosion current density with different distribution forms.
used in the simulations in this section are the same as those in
the illustrative case study except those which are mentioned
explicitly.

40.00
Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

3.3.1. Adsorption of chloride ion

35.00 x/a=0
If the adsorption effect of the chloride ion is not considered in
the numerical simulation, the results of the chloride content, pH x/a=2
30.00
and corrosion current density in the crevice solution are shown x/a=5
in Figs. 8 and 9. As it can be observed by comparing Figs. 5 and 25.00
x/a=10
8, without considering the adsorption effect, the peak value of 20.00 x/a=50
the chloride content decreases while pH near the steel surface
gradually increases instead of a sharp drop shown in Fig. 5b). By 15.00
comparing Figs. 7 and 9, the corrosion current density shows a less 10.00
change and the maximum value drops from 1:90A=m2 to 1:63A=m2
5.00
at the position of x ¼ 0.
Since no test data on the distribution of the chloride content in y 0.00
direction is available at present, several possible distributions, i.e., 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
quadratic, linear, parabola distributions, are assumed in this paper, Tensile stress (Mpa)
as shown in Fig. 10. The results of the corrosion current density
with different distributions of the chloride content are compared Fig. 12. Parametric analysis of tensile stress.
690 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693

2.40 is dominated by the anodic reaction. Thus, according to Eqs. (12)

Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

x/a=0 and (14), when the tensile stress increases, the corrosion current
2.30
x/a=2 density will drastically increase since the tensile stress (DP) is pro-
2.20 portional to the normalized logarithm of the corrosion current
x/a=5
2.10 density, i.e., logðij =ij;0 Þ.
x/a=10
2.00 x/a=50
3.3.3. Crevice width
1.90
The crevice width should be large enough to ensure that all
1.80 chemical agents could enter the crevice from the holiday, but also
1.70 need to be small enough to form a blocking circuit in the crevice.
Generally, the reasonable values of the crevice width are between
1.60
0.01 mm and 0.5 mm. Based on this range of the crevice width, the
1.50 effect of the crevice width on the corrosion current density is stud-
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 ied. The results are presented in Fig. 13. As it is observed, when the
Crevice width (mm) crevice width increases, the corrosion current density increases at
the vicinity of the holiday while decreases slightly far away from
Fig. 13. Plot of corrosion current density as a function of crevice width. the holiday. The most significant change of the corrosion current
density is only about 15 percent larger than that at the position
of x=a ¼ 0 when the crevice width changes from 0.01 mm to
time in the analyses is fixed as t ¼ 24h, since the chloride concen-
0.5 mm. Thus, the corrosion current density is not sensitive to
tration and corrosion current density are almost unchanged after
the crevice width.
24 h. As indicated in Fig. 12, the corrosion current density increases
with the stress level, especially under a higher tensile stress. The
result can be explained as follows. One of the most fundamental 3.3.4. Concentration of chloride ion
features of the crevice corrosion is that the overall corrosion rate According to Eq. (1), when the height of the steel component
above the sea level increases from 0 m to 40 m, the chloride con-
centration at the steel surface decreases from 498 mol/m3 to
49.8 mol/m3. The effect of the chloride concentration in this range
2.14 (also the vertical height of the steel component above the sea level)
Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

x/a=0 on the corrosion current density is studied. As plotted in Fig. 14,

2.06 The results show that, when the chloride concentration increases,
x/a=2
1.98 the corrosion current density decreases at the vicinity of the holi-
x/a=5
day while increases slightly far away from the holiday. The most
1.90 x/a=10 significant change of corrosion current density is only about seven
1.82 x/a=50 percent smaller than that at the position of x=a ¼ 0 when the chlo-
ride concentration increases from 49.8 mol/m3 to 498 mol/m3.
1.74 Therefore, similar to the crevice width, the corrosion current den-
1.66 sity is also insensitive to the chloride concentration.

1.58
3.4. Analytical model and formula fitting
1.50
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 To facilitate the application of the proposed numerical model in
Concentra on of chloride ion (mol/m3 ) the engineering practices, a simplified analytical model is pre-
ferred. In the numerical model proposed in this paper, the crevice
Fig. 14. Parametric analysis of concentration of Chloride ion. corrosion current density is related to the distance from the holi-

2.0 2.0

1.8 1.8
= 200Mpa
Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

= 200Mpa
Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

1.6 1.6

1.4 1.4
= 100Mpa = 100Mpa
1.2 1.2

1.0
= 50Mpa 1.0 = 50Mpa
=0 =0
0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
x/a x/a

Fig. 15. Relation between corrosion current density and distance from holiday.
 C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693 691

day (x), corrosion time (t), tensile stress (r), crevice width (a) and Table 2
chloride concentration (c2 ). According to Figs. 13 and 14, the corro- Fitting results of coefficient A and b.

sion current density is not sensitive to either the crevice width or x/a A b x/a A b
chloride concentration. According to Fig. 7, the corrosion current 0.0 0.9275 0.0036 5.2 0.8402 0.0034
density changes obviously at the beginning of the crevice corrosion 0.2 0.8962 0.0036 5.4 0.8388 0.0034
and tends to be stable after 24 h. In the bridge engineering, the 0.4 0.8820 0.0036 5.6 0.8373 0.0034
maintenance work is often conducted after several months or 0.6 0.8754 0.0036 5.8 0.8360 0.0034
0.8 0.8726 0.0036 6.0 0.8346 0.0034
years. Therefore, the change of the corrosion current density at 1.0 0.8711 0.0035 6.2 0.8333 0.0034
the beginning of the crevice corrosion can be neglected. Based on 1.2 0.8701 0.0035 6.4 0.8320 0.0034
the above discussion, the corrosion current density can be simpli- 1.4 0.8690 0.0035 6.6 0.8307 0.0034
fied as: 1.6 0.8678 0.0035 6.8 0.8294 0.0034
1.8 0.8665 0.0035 7.0 0.8282 0.0034
ic;corr ¼ iðx=a; rÞ ð23Þ 2.0 0.8651 0.0035 7.2 0.8270 0.0034
2.2 0.8636 0.0035 7.4 0.8259 0.0034
where ic;corr ðA=m Þ is the corrosion current density. 2
2.4 0.8621 0.0035 7.6 0.8247 0.0034
As it can be observed in Fig. 15, the current density decreases 2.6 0.8605 0.0035 7.8 0.8236 0.0034
2.8 0.8589 0.0035 8.0 0.8225 0.0034
rapidly at the vicinity of the holiday and then tends to be stable.
3.0 0.8573 0.0035 8.2 0.8215 0.0034
Thus, a piecewise function is adopted for formula fitting. 3.2 0.8557 0.0035 8.4 0.8204 0.0034
First, when x=a is fixed as different values (x=a < 10), an expo- 3.4 0.8541 0.0035 8.6 0.8194 0.0034
nential relation between the corrosion current density and tensile 3.6 0.8525 0.0034 8.8 0.8184 0.0034
stress, i.e., ic;corr ¼ A  ebr , is used to fit the results of numerical sim- 3.8 0.8509 0.0034 9.0 0.8175 0.0034
4.0 0.8493 0.0034 9.2 0.8165 0.0034
ulation in Fig. 16. The fitting results with different x=a are shown in 4.2 0.8477 0.0034 9.4 0.8156 0.0034
Table 2. As can be seen, the value of coefficient b almost remains 4.4 0.8462 0.0034 9.6 0.8147 0.0034
the same. Therefore, b is fixed as 0.0035. The value of coefficient 4.6 0.8447 0.0034 9.8 0.8139 0.0034
A decreases with an increasing x=a. The following equation is 4.8 0.8431 0.0034 10.0 0.8130 0.0034
5.0 0.8417 0.0034
adopted to obtain the relation between the coefficient A and x=a:
 x n
A¼m þk ð24Þ 8 h
i
a < 3:69  108  0:92  0:0434 x 0:3825  e0:0035r
a
x
a
 10
As is shown in Fig. 17, the fitting results are m ¼ 0:0434, RF;corr ¼
: 8 0:0035r
n ¼ 0:3825 and k ¼ 0:92, respectively. 3:0  10 e x
a
> 10
When x=a > 10, the formula is considered to be replaced by the ð26Þ
value of x=a ¼ 10 since ic;corr is almost unchanged when x=a > 10
This analytical model can be widely used for estimating the cre-
according to Fig. 15.
vice corrosion rate of cross-sea bridges.
For marine engineering management, corrosion rate
To compare the results calculated by Eq. (26) and numerical
RF;corr ðmm=sÞ is more convenient to use than corrosion current den-
simulation, four cases with conditions listed in Table 3 are studied.
sity ic;corr ðA=m2 Þ. Their relation can be expressed as:
These cases are commonly seen in cross-sea bridges. The compar-
icorr  Aw
RF;corr ¼ ð25Þ
zF  q
0.96
where Aw ¼ 0:056kg=mol is the mole mass of Fe. q is the density of
Fe. 0.94
Combining Eqs. (23)–(25) and the results in Table 2, RF;corr can
be written as: 0.92

0.90

0.88
A

0.86

35 0.84

x/a=0 0.82
30
x/a=1
Corrosion current density (A/m2 )

0.80
25 x/a=2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
x/a=3 x/a
20
x/a=5 Fig. 17. Fitting result of A ¼ mðx=aÞn þ k.
15 x/a=10

10 Table 3
Four different cases for cross-sea bridges.
5
Condition Tension stress Crevice widths Concentration of chloride
rðMpaÞ aðmmÞ ion ðmol=m3 Þ
0
Con.1 50 0.1 50
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Con.2 200 0.1 50
Tensile stress (Mpa)
Con.3 200 0.2 50
Con.4 200 0.1 150
Fig. 16. Relation between corrosion current density and tensile stress.
692
2.4
2.2
Crevice corrosion rate (mm/year)
2.0
1.8
Con.2-4, Analy cal model
1.6
1.4
Con.1, Numerical model
1.2
1.0
0 5 10 15
x/a
Fig. 18. Comparison results of analytical model and numerical simulation.
ison results in term of the corrosion rate after 24 h are plotted in
Fig. 18. As can be seen, the proposed analytical model is able to
provide an estimation of the crevice corrosion rate with acceptable
accuracy.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, a two-dimensional numerical model based on the
mass conservation law, electric charge conservation law and elec-
tric neutralization principle is developed to calculate the corrosion
rate of the crevice corrosion is steel components of cross-sea
bridges. Several analyses are conducted by the numerical model.
Based on the results and discussion, the following conclusions
can be drawn:
(1) The adsorption of the chloride ion can result in a larger peak
value of the chloride concentration and a drastic decrease of
pH in the solution near the holiday, which should be consid-
ered in the numerical model.
(2) The corrosion current density changes drastically near the
holiday and then tends to be unchanged far away from the
holiday.
(3) The corrosion current density is greatly affected by the ten-
sile stress.
(4) The corrosion current density is insensitive to the crevice
width, chloride concentration and corrosion time after 24 h.
Finally, A simplified analytical model with two parameters, i.e.,
stress level and distance to the holiday, is proposed based on the
above conclusions to fast estimate the corrosion rate of steel com-
ponents in cross-sea bridges.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to
this work.
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (Contract No. 51608377), National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Contract No. 51678437) and Guizhou Science
and Technology Major Project (Contract No. 〔2016〕3013).
C. Cui et al. / Construction and Building Materials 206 (2019) 683–693
Data availability
The whole research is carried out by numerical simulation
method, we do think that no useful experimental data are needed
to reproduce these findings. Even though the original simulation
data of illustrative case study are available to download from
https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/kdx3sywtnt/1.
Overlapped, Con.2-4,
Numerical simula on
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