MSc Corrosion Control Engineering

Year of entry: 2025

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Course unit details:
Principles of Corrosion

Course unit fact file
Unit code	MATS66301
Credit rating	15
Unit level	FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s)	Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit?	No

Overview

This unit introduces the fundamental science underlying various corrosion phenomena, using both lectures and laboratory sessions.

Aims

To introduce the thermodynamic and kinetic principles of the chemical and electrochemical processes that give rise to both aqueous corrosion in electrolytes,

• To high temperature oxidation in gases.

• To enable students to understand the experimental techniques for measuring and monitoring corrosion rates

• To give students hand on experience of operating potentiostatic equipment to conduct investigations into corrosion.

Learning outcomes

A greater depth of the learning outcomes will be covered in the following sections:

• Knowledge and understanding

• Intellectual skills

• Practical skills

• Transferable skills and personal qualities

Teaching and learning methods

For semester one of the 2020/21 Academic year, this course will be delivered using a blended learning approach. The core materials will be delivered via pre-recorded video segments and reinforced with online quizzes, and live lectures and discussion sessions. These activities will give continuous formative feedback to help students monitor their progress and understand what the learning outcomes expected for the unit are. Each week the timetable will give guidance on which online activities the students should complete to prepare for the live activities that will take place, and all sessions will be recorded for revision or for students to catch up if they are unable to attend live sessions for any reason.

The assessment for the unit will be by two online coursework activities worth a total of 30% of the unit marks, and a final exam worth 70% of the total, which will also take place online, the format of which will be set out once different methods have been standardised across the department.

The first online coursework activity will be an online quiz to test the content of the first four weeks of the unit (the four weeks before the Christmas holiday), which will be open to be taken for 24 hours on Friday the 18th December. The quiz will take one hour to complete, as an individual exercise, with questions chosen at random from a large pool. Feedback will be available on each question once all students in the cohort have taken the test.

Knowledge and understanding

Understand the common mass transport mechanisms in solutions; use Fick's laws to solve diffusion problems.
Understand the chemistry of typical aqueous solutions in which corrosion could occur, such as salts, acids and alkalis, and be able to describe how the solution chemistry will affect the rate and type of corrosion expected for common metals such as iron, copper and aluminium.
Discuss how the Tafel Law predicts current density for activation controlled processes.
Recognise when mass transport will limit different interfacial processes and predict the effect on the corrosion potential and corrosion current density.
Explain the stages of high temperature oxidation and the kinetics for different types of oxides.
Understand the theory for Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy.

Intellectual skills

Explain how to relate corrosion current densities to corrosion rates using Faraday’s Law.
Interpret a polarisation curve to determine the types of interfacial processes occurring.
Measure the gradient of the appropriate part of a Linear Polarisation Curve to find the Polarisation Resistance.
Perform calculation using Fick’s Laws to predict corrosion rates for cases diffusion limited reactions are rate limiting.
Use a Pourbaix diagram to describe the surface state for a metal in a known solution.
Measure corrosion rates from the results of impedance measurements.

Practical skills

Understand how to perform experiments to measure corrosion rates in aqueous environments.
Use a potentiostat correctly with either two or three electrode setups.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

Gain experience of working in a group to produce coursework.

Assessment methods

Method	Weight
Other	20%
Written exam	70%
Set exercise	10%

online quiz

Feedback methods

Feedback given verbally and written.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures	34

Independent study hours
Independent study	116

Teaching staff

Staff member	Role
Dirk Engelberg	Unit coordinator

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