Corrosion Engineering

Corrosion is the degradation of material due to electrochemical reaction of the environment. Corrosion could result in loss of structures and production and sometimes loss of lives. Hence, the cost of corrosion can be very high and some say this could be 3-5% of GDP of an industrialised nation. Corrosion is a complex area where thermodynamics, electrochemistry, materials engineering, mathematics, and electricity need to be applied for analysis. Hence, corrosion engineering is a significant research area covering a number of industries including the oil and gas industry. Research focusses on corrosion in tropical environments.

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Research students get a rich and rewarding experience during their candidature at the School. The School has some excellent facilities to carry out corrosion research. The School has subscribed to some outstanding research journals, through the library, including the Corrosion Analysis Network from American Society for Materials.

Charles Darwin University offers PhD and Masters by Research programs in corrosion engineering. There are opportunities for prospective new postgraduate students interested in research. Potential PhD and Master by Research topics include:

• Thermodynamic stability diagrams for hardfacing alloys
• Developing erosion-corrosion models for mining and minerals industry
• Microbially Influenced Corrosion in alloys used in the oil and gas industry
• Corrosion modelling for structures subjected differentials aeration corrosion
• Numerical analysis of corrosion in complex structures

Corrosion engineering research at Charles Darwin University is partly carried within the North Australian Centre for Oil and Gas (NACOG). For further information, refer to www.cdu.edu.au/oilandgas. 

Research Coordinator: Krishnan Kannoorpatti