Author : El Hadji Aliou Diop, Fadel Niang, Diadioly Gassama, Karim Diaw, Modou Fall [ Volume No.:V, Issue No.III-May 2016] [Page No : 627-634] [2016]

Stainless steel shower columns in bathrooms are marked by fast and special corrosion of the high horizontal parts in the environment context of the region of Dakar. This causes drillings or alterations leading to their constant replacements though the other parts of the shower column usually remain unaffected. The sweating technical permitted to evidence early stage corrosion cases on the shower columns for better observation. Ryznar stability and Langelier saturation indexes were used to evaluate the aqueous environment aggressiveness (corrosiveness). Chronopotentiometry and linear polarization techniques were used to determine free-corrosion potentials as well as Evans diagrams and Tafel data’s which allowed studying the shower columns corrosion behavior in the solutions simulating the respective environments. They permitted to compare these various environments aggressiveness and explain the origin of the observed corrosion. The results showed that the corrosion of these stainless steel shower column parts is more pronounced in chlorinated soapy water and seawater solutions (presence of chloride ions). Drinking and soapy waters were less corrosive for these shower columns. The corrosion rates were close when comparing seawater and chlorinated soapy water, but also drinking and soapy waters.