ABSTRACT
As a part of a project investigating the corrosivity of European sea waters towards stainless steels the effect of the sea water composition on the anodic reaction of the pitting corrosion process has been studied. Sea water samples from eleven laboratories, situated along the coasts of Europe, have been investigated and the corrosivity was ranked as the effect on electrochemically determined critical pitting temperatures and pitting potentials of AISI 316 stainless steel. Although the sea water samples ranged from brackish Baltic to full strength North Sea and Atlantic Ocean waters no significant differences in corrosivity could be detected. It therefore seems as if the anodic pitting reaction is practically independent of the sea water composition.
