Corrosion expertise & failure investigation

TWI staff have wide ranging expertise in corrosion damage investigation and remedial recommendations, with particular awareness of the influence of welding and joining technologies upon materials performance. In addition, surfacing technologies are a core aspect of corrosion mitigation. TWI develops, understands their performance in detail and applies these to industrial needs.

Joints and weldments are frequently the area most susceptible to corrosion due to physical design and influencing factors such as residual stress, modified metallurgy, weld metal properties etc. However, it is of course necessary to understand how the parent material would perform before considering the influence of welding and TWI frequently deals with issues that are not directly related to joints in the support and failure studies undertaken for our global client base.

Our experts are able to respond to the worldwide distribution of TWI Industrial Members providing technical support and on-site failure studies through rapid mobilisation, and laboratory based investigation and data generation. Our staff recognise the time-critical nature of plant downtime and respond accordingly. Our expertise is world renowned and our reputation leads to our involvement in the most demanding of major failure studies worldwide, with the impartial reporting and assessment accepted by Government Safety Agencies, Insurance and Loss Adjusters, plant operators, asset owners and engineering companies.

Knowledge encompasses:

Corrosion mechanisms applicable to all engineering materials
- General corrosion
- Galvanic corrosion of dissimilar metals and weldments
- Localised corrosion
  - Preferential weldment corrosion
  - Pitting corrosion
  - Crevice corrosion
  - De-alloying and selective attack
  - Flow and erosion enhanced attack
  - Differential concentration cells
  - High temperature / flame impingement
  - Fretting, Erosion and Wear
- Environmentally assisted cracking
  - Hydrogen embrittlement
  - Sulphide stress corrosion, (or Sulfide Stress Corrosion) SSC, Sour Service Risk Management
  - Stress corrosion cracking
  - Hydrogen induced cracking, HIC or hydrogen pressure induced cracking, HPIC
  - Stress oriented hydrogen induced cracking, SOHIC
  - Hydrogen disbonding of cladding and overlays
- Corrosion fatigue
  - Corrosion fatigue in marine environments
  - Corrosion fatigue in H ₂ S
  - Corrosion fatigue in sweet conditions
Many other industrially relevant damage mechanisms including:
- Fatigue
- Creep
- Brittle fracture
Thermal spray coatings for corrosion and wear prevention
- Anodic coatings for sacrificial cathodic protection e.g. Al, Zn
- Corrosion resistant alloys (CRAs) e.g. Ni-base, stainless steels, Ti
- Innovative, application specific, accelerated corrosion testing
- Failure investigations
- Other coatings e.g. micro-arc anodising, sol-gel etc
Rapid failure investigation and assessment of remedial / mitigation measures
Arbitration and Expert Witness Support
Design and manufacture to avoid corrosion with expertise in welding technology

TWI has a comprehensive range of analytical and specialised testing techniques to allow study of corrosion failures and assessment of materials performance. In addition, our staff are also undertaking continuous research and development into materials and corrosion thereby enhancing the expertise available to address your problems.

If you have a specific need for support contact our Corrosion Team now.

TWI Corrosion Services