Analysis of Beibu Gulf tidal zone exposure on properties of carbon steel

Marine tidal zone is a corrosive environment that has a negative impact on carbon steel. This research investigates the change of mechanical properties and corrosion behaviour of carbon steel specimens subjected to field exposure test and simulation test for 12 and 6 months, respectively. The corrosion behaviour of carbon steel exposed to real marine tidal zone and simulation environment was discussed through morphological observation and corrosion kinetics analysis, in order to reveal the essential reason for the degradation of its mechanical properties. Then the tensile test was performed on the corroded specimens and true stress–strain curves were obtained. In addition, regression equations were derived for the mechanical properties as a function of the degree of corrosion degradation and a constitutive model with time factor for corroded carbon steel is proposed.