1 What corrosion management (CM) really means;
2 What to expect from CM.
Let us be more specific in describing what we mean by the above. For those of you who have been too engaged with your integrity management tasks that cannot find time to watch movies and particularly horror movies, I do recommend to watch the movie “Final Destination; Part 5,” and watch it with the eyes of a corrosion/integrity management specialist. In this movie (and its previous parts) what is shown is that something of little importance goes wrong, and in a series of unpredictable, sad events, one (or sometimes more) of the actors are killed in a very dramatic, graphic way. As said, the main lesson learned from this movie is that one problem can lead to another and in the end, a catastrophic result occurs. The same is also true with neglecting corrosion in an integrity management plan; something that one would think is not that important will lead to another, and if it is in its “pseudo‐FFS1” (Fit‐For‐Service State) stage, the result at its best could be arriving at a “Zugzwang effect” [1] stage, or simply said, failure.
In classical academic literature related to Management and its principles, perhaps one of the best definitions have been given by Henry Fayol as “To manage is to forecast and to plan, to organize, to command, to co‐ordinate and to control [1].” On the other hand, corrosion has also a clear definition that can be simplified as the chemical reaction between an electron donor (anode) and electron receiver (cathode) via a medium that allows exchange of ions and a metallic path that allows electron transfer.2 However, what is CM? In fact, when it comes to corrosion science, we know that we are talking about laboratories, white‐collar researchers, academic environments, and the search for understanding fundamentals and mechanisms of corrosion processes. In this context, innovation and how innovative research must be carried out is of fundamental significance. When we talk about corrosion engineering, it is the way the accumulated science and knowledge about corrosion and corrosion processes will become applicable in the field. For instance, the use of cathodic protection to let structures survive longer, or use of corrosion inhibitors and biocides to chemically control corrosion. Figure 1.1 can serve to show the essential elements of corrosion engineering and how corrosion engineering and other engineering disciplines are interconnected with each other. We see that when talking about corrosion engineering, we are actually talking about a multidimensional topic that in its wholeness is more complex than other engineering disciplines not in based on the subject of focus, but on the methodologies that apply to address corrosion and its various aspects such as monitoring and treatment:
Figure 1.1 Corrosion engineering and its relation to other engineering disciplines (right), essential features and components of corrosion engineering (left) (Used by permission from Eng. Riky Bernardo – Qatar).
All of these applications have their own codes and standards. When we talk about corrosion treatment, we know that we are talking about five strategies to deal with corrosion (physical measures, chemical measures, electrical measures, mechanical measures, and design/material selection measures). Corrosion monitoring is to address methods and technologies by which severity of corrosion within its course of action is studied by codes and measures pertaining to corrosion monitoring. All of the above bring to mind certain codes, working environments and specialties, and expertise. However, what is CM? It obviously has a part dealing with corrosion and a part dealing with management. The confusion arises from here; how can management which is seeming a non‐technical issue, be matched with corrosion which is a highly technical issue?
All the materials written to date on the management of corrosion are just looking at the science/engineering, and to some extent economy of corrosion, without detailing with the actual requirements (for example, about the economic nomenclature that is needed to understand cost of corrosion). Some of the publications about CM do suffer from the defects mentioned above. Some examples of CM literature are:
A. Morshed, “An Introduction to Corrosion Management in Industry,” NACE, USA, 2017.
A. Morshed, “An Introduction to Asset Corrosion Management in the Oil and Gas Industry, 2nd edition,” NACE, USA, 2016.
A.S. Groysman, “Corrosion Problems and Solutions in Oil Refining and Petrochemical Industry,” Springer, 2017.
“My Manual: Practical Corrosion Management,” a manual published by IDC Technologies, 2009, Perth, Australia.
Even IMPACT report by ex‐NACE (now AMPP) that was published in 2016 had some sections on management and economy without any focus on engineering and science aspect of corrosion.
No economist, environmental sciences specialist, or a non‐technical manager is likely to read those books (and similar ones) or attend CM seminars and webinars. The reason is simple; corrosion has not been defined for these non‐corrosionist professionals. Perhaps, the importance of corrosion has sometimes been flagged by some politicians,3 as well as passing bills to allow the establishment of certain corrosion related entities, say, within the army, but apart from those individual sparks, no overall, systematic understanding about corrosion and its various aspects exists yet.
Our iconoclast approach toward CM is what we call “Smart Management of Corrosion” in the sense that (i) it is smart because this system can adapt itself with any industry and, contrary to the existing assumption that CM is to be discussed within the context of a certain industry (oil and gas), smart management of corrosion is not industry‐specific; and (ii) it focuses of the management side rather+ than the corrosion side. Our understanding is that current CM systems mainly deali with the risk of corrosion, however it is essential to also deal with the cost of corrosion, whether economic cost or ecological cost. Management of corrosion is a term that acts as an umbrella to both CM (risk of corrosion) and corrosion knowledge management (CKM) (cost of corrosion) simultaneously and being as such, Management of Corrosion is a more general term than CM alone.
There are three very important features about corrosion:
1 Corrosion and Failure: Corrosion is inevitable and manageable; failure is inevitable and non‐manageable. Being non‐manageable does not mean that it cannot be prevented, it simply means that when failure happens, it happens! This distinguishment between these two terms if of vital importance; the prejudice of many who deal with corrosion issues is that they are entitled to find a way to prevent or control corrosion.4 Corrosion occurs anyway due to the thermodynamic nature of it, it is our duty, though, to prevent failures. It is through failures and leaks that not only economic costs are imposed (from shut down costs to maintenance and replacement), but also environmental effects also occur. Study of corrosion processes ending in leak and failure is the task of a corrosion specialist, post‐mortem forensic investigation of the failure is what a forensic investigator does to help build a root cause analysis report, but who is to measure the seriousness of the environmental effects thus produced? Who is going to estimate the economic loss (direct cost and indirect cost)?
2 Risk and Likelihood: If the likelihood of getting a certain type of corrosion‐related failure is low, it does not necessarily mean that is risk is also low and vice versa. The confusion between risk and likelihood
