Quiz No.

4 (WS2020/2021)
Name: Surname: Student ID:

Read the text carefully. Provide a short answer to each question. Answers without an explanation
will give you zero points! Attention: It is your responsibility that the text is readable. If you save
your document digitally, it is advised to convert it to PDF format. After saving, check that the
diagrams are in the shape you wish to be. The quiz time is 15 minutes.

(1) In the figure given below, experimental anodic polarization curves for three different stainless
steels are presented. The polarization curves were obtained in 1M sulfuric acid containing
0.01 M of chloride ions under identical conditions.
a. Evaluate the active-to-passive transition region of each curve and explain the possible
reasons for the differences observed. (2 points)
b. All of the alloys lost their passivity before reaching the transpassive region. What is
the reason? Note that the steep rise in current at high potential is the breakdown
potential, i.e. we do not see transpassive breakdown. (2 points)
c. Is there a relationship between the active-to-passive transition and passivity
breakdown properties of the alloys? If yes, explain the reason. (2 points)

(2) A technician inspected an aeroplane for possible damages and observed a small nick on the
wings. He used a pencil (graphite) to mark the site of damage by drawing a circle around the
dent. Because its size was small, the engineer decided not to take any repairing measures at
that time. Three months later, after a full operation, the aircraft was re-inspected, and a hole
in the pencil-marked region was observed. The diameter of the hole was almost identical to
the size of the circle.
a. Why did the hole occur? Explain! (2 points)
b. What kind of measures could have been taken to avoiding this failure? (2 points)