Corrosion protection and protection of buildungs laboratory

Head of laboratory: Renate Lobnig

How is it possible to determine the corrosion resistance of metals or the efficiency of corrosion protection methods? How do we choose effective corrosion protection methods in practice?

• accelerated weathering tests like the salt spray test, condensation water test and cyclic test procedures
• galvanostatic/potentiostatic measurement of volt-ampere curves
• impedance spectroscopy
• scanning Kelvin probe
• metallography
• electron microscopy

and use them e.g. for the following:

• measuring corrosion potential and rate of corrosion
• evaluating the passivity of metals
• assessing pitting corrosion resistance
• determining effectiveness and mechanisms of corrosion (protection) inhibitors
• investigating the structure and efficiency of conversion coatings
• investigating the corrosion protection effect of coatings
• investigating the failure of anticorrosion coatings due to blistering, cathodic delamination and filiform corrosion
• carrying out comparative assessment of anticorrosion coatings
• investigating causes of damage

How is it possible in practice to choose and assess appropriate methods for the protection and the restoration of buildings or for the protection of new buildings?

In the Protection of Buildings practical, students conduct model tests to understand material degradation, e.g.

• morphology and chemical composition of building materials
• water transport in building materials
• water vapour diffusion
• sorption isotherms
• salinity and influence of hygroscopic contamination on the water balance
• strength profile and moisture distribution

Further, students investigate methods of building protection like:

• influence of coatings, hydrophobicity and other surface treatments on the permeability of water and water vapour
• destructive and non-destructive measurement of the water content of building materials
• salinity assessment of building materials
• reinforced concrete: assessment of carbonation depth, corrosion of reinforcing steel (also non-destructive) and surface hardness
• non-destructive collection of strength profiles and assessment of stone hardening methods
• assessment and selection of coatings in steel construction
• assessment and selection of coatings in the protection of buildings
• surface temperature
• contamination
• contact angle
• scuffing resistance
• resistance to environmental impacts
• optical microscopy and electron microscopy

<//li>

• damage analysis of a residential building

• trepanning
• depth profile analysis of salinity and moisture
• manufacturing and investigation of reference material on the SEM
• drilling resistance method
• electron microscopy / analysis of sample of different defects
• information collection/search for special restoration methods
• surface modelling