"Grabenkorrosion": How scientific debate leads to an solution. And modern failures due to neglection of well described facts
- In the late 1980s, a new type of corrosion appeared in drinking water installations where galvanized steel pipes failed forming a deep groove with no corrosion at the other surfaces. The reason was discussed quite fiercely between failure analysts and material suppliers. In the end the discussion lead to the solution: inductive welded pipes of a certain sulphur content were prone to selective corrosion. The history of the arguments is discussed using old communications between Wilhelm Schwenk and Wolfgang Stichel, who later published the results in a paper unfortunately only I german.
Thus the knowledge got lost and new cases based on the same material problems are observed in application of so-called C-Steel piping systems. Failure cases are shown.