Paper: Field Application of Laboratory Corrosion Inhibitor Test Data

In order to select the appropriate inhibitor for a given application, two outstanding pieces of information need to be known. They are: "How much corrosion will occur in a given length of time under the specified conditions?" and "How much corrosion can be accepted?" The amount of corrosion that will occur in a given length of time can be determined by running a test which will duplicate the desired conditions; but, the amount of corrosion that is acceptable is somewhat arbitrary. In this paper, an attempt will be made to give the reader an understanding of how tests are run to determine the amount of corrosion that will occur and to help develop a feel for the amount of corrosion that can be accepted. However, before going further, we should review the fundamental definitions of "corrosion" and "inhibition".