Computational Study of Nanotechnological Coatings to Minimize Corrosion in Galvanized Steel Elements of the Electrical Distribution Grid
摘要
The corrosion of metals installed outdoors has been escalating, resulting in significantly higher maintenance and replacement costs for affected components. The electrical industry uses galvanized steel as a protective material against corrosion. However, this material is vulnerable to aggressive atmospheric conditions. To address this issue, a computational study of the application of nanotechnological coatings is proposed as an initial research. The selection of the coatings was carried out through a bibliographic analysis. The type of application surface and aggressive medium were considered, selecting titanium dioxide (TiO \(_2\) ), graphene oxide (GO) and silicon dioxide (SiO \(_2\) ). These nanoparticles are economically accessible and environmentally friendly. For the study, the metallic structures to deposit the nanoparticles were designed using software, and the corrosion gradient was analyzed using the finite element method. Numerical results show that the application of nanocoatings significantly reduces the corrosion rate compared to galvanized steel after a mass loss estimation calculation over time. Specifically, when using TiO \(_2\) , GO and SiO \(_2\) as coatings, corrosion rates of 7.82E-08 kg/s, 5.41E-08 kg/s and 6.88E-09 kg/s were obtained, respectively. These values contrast with the corrosion rate of galvanized steel, which was 3.18E-07 kg/s. The lowest value obtained for SiO \(_2\) indicates that this material offers the highest corrosion protection among the nanocoatings evaluated.