Past research into the mechanism governing the time to active crevice corrosion, the incubation period, of a passive metal crevice has produced theoretical models coupled with the B-dot model, the Debye-Hückel limiting law, and other activity models, to correct for non-ideal behavior at moderately high concentrations. In this research, the transport model of Watson and Postlethwaite1, 2 is coupled with the ionic interaction model of Pitzer3 to predict the effect of the crevice gap on the iR drop and chemical activity of the crevice solution. To validate the model, the experimental type 304 stainless steel crevice of Alavi and Cottis4 is simulated. Model predictions match observations of this experimental work within experimental uncertainty. The effect of crevice gap on a titanium crevice immersed in 0.5 mol/L aqueous NaCl solution at 25°C is also predicted. The iR drop between crevice tip and mouth, the solution electrical conductivity, and chemical activity, increases as the crevice gap decreases in size. The relationship between iR drop and deviation from charge electroneutrality of the solution is investigated.
Key words: crevice corrosion, incubation period, crevice gap, ionic interaction model