Study on a multifactor coupling accelerated test method for anticorrosive coatings in marine atmospheric environments

Abstract

Abstract According to the physical and chemical multifield coupling effects on anticorrosive coatings under marine atmospheric environments, the correlations between various environmental factors were analyzed, and a multifactor coupling accelerated test spectrum of the marine atmospheric environment was designed. Moreover, an ultraviolet (UV)/salt spray coupling acceleration test chamber was also designed and prepared, and a multifactor coupling accelerated test method for marine atmospheric environments was established. The mechanism of the changes in light loss rate, adhesion, low-frequency impedance mode value, and aging composite index of a typical engineering coating system (acrylic polyurethane/epoxy/carbon steel system) under multifactor coupling acceleration environments were tracked, analyzed, and compared with the aging curves of a coating subjected to UV/salt spray cycle accelerated and marine atmospheric outdoor exposure tests in Wanning, China. The Corrcoef function in MATLAB was used to calculate the correlation among the aging curves of the three environmental coatings. Results indicated that the multifactor coupling accelerated test had better correlation with outdoor exposure test than the UV/salt spray cycle accelerated test.