Aspects of microbially induced corrosion (EFC 22) PDF

Because of their great practical value and scientific interest, metals lie at the cross-roads of many scientific and technological disciplines. Chemists are interested in the oxidation and reduction of metals, the catalytic properties of metals and the laws by which metals combine together to form alloys. Chemical engineers apply their general principles of chemical processing to the production of pure metals from ores. Solid-state physicists are fascinated by the electronic and atomic structures of metals and by the ways in which these structures determine the characteristic properties of metals and alloys. Mechanical engineers are interested in the plastic working of metals, structural engineers in the mechanical performance of metals in practical use, and electrical engineers in all the special electrical and magnetic properties obtainable from metallic materials.

The contributions to the science and technology of metals made by people in these fields are immensely valuable. Nevertheless, and quite naturally, each of them sees only his own side of the subject. The essential task of the metallurgist is to complement and coordinate the work of these specialists by acting as a general practitioner over the whole field ..To take an example, if we wish to make an intelligent choice of a steel for a nuclear reactor pressure vessel we must know about the chemistry of steelmaking, about the rolling and welding of steel, about corrosion, about brittle fracture at low temperature and creep deformation at high temperature, about effects of damage to the atomic structure of metals by nuclear radiation, about commercial and economic factors, and about the interrelations of all these and many other things with one another. An equally wide spectrum of knowledge is required in other problems; for example, to develop a new turbine alloy or to diagnose the cause of failure in a broken aircraft undercarriage. A metallurgist, however much he may specialize in practice, must be able, when required, to take this wide, all-embracing view.

It was with such thoughts in mind that I considered an invitation to prepare a new edition of my book Theoretical Structural Metallurgy. When that book was written, the pure science of metals was still quite new and there seemed a good case for bringing it to the attention of metallurgists in an elementary but specialized book. The position is now different. This science has become well established and triumphant. The need now, it seems to me, is to re-assert the unity of all metallurgical knowledge and to link up this new science with the more traditional aspects of the subject. A new

edition under the old title could not do this. I was thus led to attempt, instead, a complete survey of the whole metallurgical field. What I have tried to do particularly is to show metallurgy as a single applied science. This has meant developing the science as a continuous thread running through the subject, from atomic theory, through thermodynamics, reaction kinetics and crystal physics, to elasticity and plasticity, but stopping at all suitable places to show how the characteristic features of metals, alloys, and the processes of practical metallurgy, such as extraction, refining, casting, working, and. heat-treatment, grow out of this science. In choosing this pattern I have also been influenced by the feeling that the most intellectually exciting thing to do in metallurgy today is to apply the newlydiscovered science to the invention and development of new metallurgical processes and materials.

Naturally, I have not been able to go very far into anyone aspect of the subject. The book has been aimed, however, at those who are at the beginning of their metallurgical studies and so I hope that it will be forgiven its admitted lack of depth, for the sake of what I hope is a broad view.

Edited by: Sir Alan Cottrell