Investigation of Corrosion Rate of Mild Steel in Fruit Juice Environment Using Factorial Experimental Design

Although little attention is paid to corrosion study in food processing and production industry, it is highly important to take a critical look at what transpires at the production stages and how these can affect human health due to contamination of the final product. This research employs the design of experiment module of a Minitab software to analyze the corrosion effect of mild steel in fruit juice environment. Coupon method was adopted to calculate the rate of corrosion in orange, pineapple, and cashew fluid for a duration of 25 days with measurement taken at 5-day intervals. The highest corrosion rate of 0.71 mmpy was observed in cashew fluid followed by pineapple fluid, and the least rate of 0.08 mmpy was observed in orange fluid. The generalized model equation was obtained to predict corrosion rate of mild steel in a similar environment. In general, design of experiment offers a better way to analyze corrosion experiment result, and this innovative idea is shown in this work.