Atmospheric corrosion of galvanized steel and aluminium in marine and marine‐industrial environments of Saudi Arabia

Three‐year exposure programme was carried out in Saudi Arabia at nine test stations with different climatic and pollution conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the joint effect of atmospheric pollutants (Cl^? and SO₂), relative humidity (RH) and temperature (T) on the atmospheric corrosion of galvanized steel (GS) and aluminium (Al). Corrosion rates of the two metals have been obtained by loss of weight after 1, 2 and 3 years exposure. The composition of the corrosion products formed on the specimens was identified by X‐ray diffraction analysis. A classification of the atmospheric corrosion aggressivity of the test sites based both on environmental data and corrosion rate measurements was made according to ISO 9223. In some regions, it can be found that corrosion rate values exceed those established by the ISO standard.