THE PHENOMENA OF RUST Most people don’t think about rust or steel corrosion on a daily basis. Their only contact might be some old steel plumbing in their house that has rusted through that needs replacement or steel panels on their car rusting through, especially if they live in a location that experiences icy winters where salting the roads is common. What most people don’t think about on a regular basis are the effects of corrosion on the steel rebar that holds up our highways, the steel trusses that keep our bridges safe, and the steel tanks [...]

PROTECTING STEEL FROM RUST Of all of the possible choices for structural metals, the most commonly used is carbon steel. It has a reasonably high strength-to-weight ratio, is easy to form into structural shapes, can easily be welded, and stands up well to stresses due to movement such as earthquakes and high wind and water loads. The one downside is that in the presence of moisture, the iron in the carbon steel eventually corrodes to iron oxides (commonly called rust) which are mostly crystalline and fall apart under stress. Ever since the invention of the steel-making process, [...]