Materials of Construction

L. Jenkins. Manager, Research Results Service: Stella Anderson. Layout and Production. Joseph Jacobs, Art Director,. Denis Gruschin, Perry Donovan (La...
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EDITORIAL

INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY Editor, D A V I D E . G U S H E E Editorial Headquarters 1155 Sixteenth’St., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20036 Phone 202-737-3337 Teletype W A 23 Associate Editor: Joseph H. S. Haggin Assistant Editor: William L. Jenkins Manager, Research Results Service: Stella Anderson Layout a n d Production Joseph Jacobs Art Director, Denis Gruschih, Perry Donovan (Layout) Production-Easton, Pa. Associate Editor: Charlotte C . Sayre Editorial Assistant: J a n e M. Andrews International Editorial Bureaus Frankfurt/Main, West Germany Grosse Bockenheimerstrasse 32 H. Clifford Neely London, W.C.2, England 2 7 J o h n A d a m St. Michael K. McBee Tokyo, J a p a n Apt. 306, 47 Dai-machi Akasaka, Minato-ku Patrick P. McCurdy A D V I S O R Y B O A R D : T h o m a s Baron. R . B. Beckm a n n C 0 Bennett Bennett F G . Ciapetta J. J. Fischer, Bra e’Gdlding R L ’Hdrshey E F johnson A A J o n f e , F. C. &G;ew, Arthur k o i e , b. N. Sat(erfik1d; W. C. Schreiner, E . G. Schwarz, Joseph Stewart, T. J. ’Williams

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Materials of Construction Selecting them is an art; understanding them is a science difficult part of the chemical engineer’s job in the early Thepartmost of this century, according to P. V. Danckwerts [Nature 210 (5036), 571 (1966)], was the choice of the right materials of construction. I t still ranks among the most difficult, and perhaps the reason lies buried somewhere in the philosophical difference betyeen this subject and many of the others with which chemical engineers deal. “It is clear,” Prof. Danckwerts says, “that the chemical engineer does not himself always have to develop scientific methods for solving the problems which he encounters. For example, although he is professionally deeply concerned with the properties of materials, he is not usually thought to be responsible for developing the science and technology of materials-metallurgy, corrosion , refractories, and so on. Other technologists have assumed this responsibility which, on the whole, requires a different scientific background from that of the chemical engineer.” Is this possibly one reason why a t least one corrosion engineer can say of his peers that they aren’t creative (I&EC, May 1966, page 7)? And is this perhaps part of the reason for the unwieldy methodology generally used today for the selection and specification of materials of construction? It can hardly be argued that classifying materials of construction by material is more effective than classifying them by the environment to which they will be exposed. Perhaps the closest approach to the latter that has yet seen the light of day is the “Dechema Werkstoff Tabelle,” a massive compilation of the corrosive effects of chemical environments on materials. Even this table is limited in treatment of temperature, concentration, and other environmental effects. I t does, however, utilize the basis for selection of materials that is applied in the majority of cases: massive volumes of observations coupled with judgment of experienced engineers. From this general background, we have this year, as a n experiment, carried out a n extensive search of the 1965 corrosion literature, and are publishing part of it this month in conjunction with our Annual Reviews of Materials of Construction. Our view of corrosion is through a wide-angle lens; no basic correlating mechanism arose from the mists. What does manifest itself clearly is the gulf, both in language and in purpose, between corrosion engineers and scientists probing the fundamental nature of materials. There are signs, somewhat obscure as yet, that each group is becoming interested in the knowledge and methods of the other. There is even a new journal-Materials Science and Engineering-being launched to deal with their interaction. Hopefully, the end result will be a more basic, less empirical understanding of the effects of chemical environments on materials, and therefore a more dependable methodology for selection and specification.

VOL. 5 8

NO. 8

AUGUST 1966

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