Effect of Distance from Sea on Atmospheric Corrosion Rate

The influence of the distance from sea constitutes one of the most important aspects of atmospheric corrosion in coastal areas. Empirically, it is known that the effect of marine atmospheres extends principally some few hundred meters from the shoreline and decays rapidly further inland. As coastal corrosion rate depends on the concentration of chloride in the atmosphere, influence of wind and surf zone on the production of saline droplets and the decrease of the amount of these droplets from settling and impingement were discussed. The complexity of phenomena associated with marine atmospheric corrosion makes it difficult to devise a model that covers all scenarios. However, for the areas closest to the shoreline (~ 400 m to 600 m), using published data, it was shown that the decrease of the corrosion rate with distance from the sea is represented fairly well by a simple exponential relationship.