Development of UV resistant Fusion bonded epoxy coatings for surface protection of steel structures and rebars against corrosion – Phase I

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

Due to its widespread practice, steel consumption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been raised annually by about 20% between 2012 to 2015, through the structures of steel rod, bar, wire and reinforcing bar in great demand. The corrosion protection of steel structures has always been of chief concern for current research and development as it faces severe corrosion issues due to its huge economical and industrial development in the coastal zones. Fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) coatings have been utilized as protective coatings for steel structures exposed in atmospheric, marine and industrial sectors for the last 5 decades. Though FBE coatings have been subjected to vast improvement for the past few decades, still there are some shortcomings that are not completed solved such as the less UV resistance, inadequate abrasion resistance and insufficient multi-functional characteristics including super hydrophobicity, antifouling, self-healing etc. These issues can be the productive approach in concentrating the development on FBE coatings to get the desired features. This current proposal demonstrates the feasibility of multifunctional FBE coatings with desired features on steel structures including transmission pipelines, and rebar in concretes through systematic approach. The proposed research area will contribute to the kingdom economy by introducing this novel multifunctional FBE coating for both local and global markets in addition to technology transfer by evolving students in the project activities. In particularly, the steel structures exposed in atmospheric conditions have been availed this proposed multifunctional FBE coatings as the operating conditions of these components are highly aggressive with UV exposure. The proposed FBE coatings and their formulations will be prepared with a cheaper technological route (than commercially available) that will be developed completely within KFUPM. The complete cycle of fabrication from raw materials will be developed and full characterization in terms of hydrophobicity, mechanical, corrosion, and UV resistance performance will be performed to evaluate the developed FBE coatings in stage by stage. The successful execution of this possible plan will enable us to develop these materials locally as the only step left would be to apply them for the protection of steel structures in real exposure condition.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/07/2131/12/22

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