Anti-corrosion techniques could double the life of steel

The techniques, which could reduce steel corrosion rates by 50 per cent, involve passing an electric current through a material or applying an electromagnetic field to a material for two to three minutes.

Andreas Chrysanthou, leader of the Materials Research group at Hertfordshire University, said: ‘The work so far is showing that there is some kind of reduction in the residual stresses.’

These stresses form in a material and create defects, which alter the electrochemical behaviour of a material from one side to the other.

‘Through using these new techniques we’re hoping to produce a more uniform structure by manipulating the composition of the material at a microstructure level,’ said Chrysanthou. ‘Our research suggests this will then reduce the corrosion levels.’ 

The team has so far completed seven experiments but only one of these has been conducted using the electromagnetic field technique. However, Chrysanthou claims that the end result is the same for both techniques.