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The article describes the corrosion attack and premature damage in stainless steel drinking water piping installed in a hospital. After only two years of service, intensive pitting and crevice corrosion was observed near welded joints, resulting in wall perforation. The analyses made on damaged tubes revealed that corrosion attack started in the root parts of weldments due to welding defects, mainly incomplete root penetration, lack of fusion, and inadequate weld root shielding. Such defects formed narrow crevices in which a restricted exchange of ions and electric charge with the environment caused fast and extensive corrosion damage. The presence of chlorine dioxide, used for water disinfection, also played a significant role in the initiation of corrosion, as chlorine or chloride ions disrupt the protective oxidic film on the metal surface and facilitate the penetration of oxygen.
Keywords: Water piping, welding defects, pitting and crevice corrosion, austenitic stainless steel, water disinfection, chlorine dioxide© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.