Long‐term atmospheric corrosion rates of hot dip galvanised steel and zinc‐aluminium‐magnesium coated steel

Zn coated steel (Z) and ZnAlMg coated steel (ZM3.7/3 = Zn–Al (3.7 wt.%)‐Mg (3.0 wt.%)) have been exposed for 6 years at twelve different weathering sites world wide. The mass loss of the coatings have been measured after 1, 2, 4, and 6 years exposure. From the results, it is shown that ZM3.7/3 had always a better corrosion performance compared to Z. The ratio of performance after 6 years of exposure varied from about 1.4 to 4.4 with a mean value of 2.8. At temperate marine sites (e.g., temperature between 9–20°C) with low to moderate SO 2 pollution a good relationship was observed between the relative performance of ZM3.7/3 and the corrosion rate of Z. It was thus concluded that ZM3.7/3 has a better relative performance in harsh environments. The corrosion performance of ZM3.7/3 was shown to be connected to the formation of protective corrosion products.