Mapping Atmospheric Corrosion on Modern Materials in the Greater Athens Area

摘要

In this study, we investigate the corrosion effects on modern materials at various sheltered and unsheltered locations in the Greater Athens Area (GAA) due to atmospheric pollution, since materials deterioration could emerge severe economic costs in the near future. The preselected materials are weathering steel, copper, bronze, zinc, and aluminum, which are mainly used in modern constructions in the GAA. The method applied in this study leads in the production of corrosion maps for GAA in the period 2000-2009 by using sophisticated geoanalytical methods together with dose-response functions for the selected materials. The corrosion effects are significant for weathering steel, moderate for copper and bronze and weak for zinc and aluminum. Also, a corrosion trend analysis is performed, which can be a very helpful tool for future protection of such materials from atmospheric pollution. The results show increasing corrosion trends for weathering steel and copper in the eastern regions of GAA, probably caused by the recent operation of the Athens International Airport at Spata, while no corrosion trends were observed to the other materials. The method applied in this work provides comprehensive results for the estimation of the impact of atmospheric corrosion on various construction materials.