The cause of the high corrosion losses below the low tide level on older steel piling (usually called Accelerated Low Water Corrosion -ALWC) is incompletely understood but usually linked to microbiological influences. Vertical 3-6 m long steel strips were exposed through the tidal zone at 13 different marine sites. After only 1-3 years good correlation was found between ALWC and local seawater average concentration of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, a necessary nutrient for microbiological activity. These results allow prediction of the likelihood of long-term ALWC through measurement of either short-term corrosion loss profiles or average nutrient levels.
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