Testbed in Brest - corrosion testing in natural sea water

In our testbed exposure of materials for seawater applications can be performed using natural seawater from Atlantic Ocean. Exposures can be performed in open-sea or in the marine station where the temperature, the oxygen, the flow rate and the eventual chemical treatment (e. g. chlorination) can be controlled.

Equipment and custom-made solutions

The seawater station in the testbed is equipped with controlled exposure cells and tanks (from 20L to >3000L) continuously filled with natural seawater, directly pump from the bay of Brest, France. The temperature can be controlled from 4°C to >90°C to exposure any type of material or system. The exposure tanks can be controlled in terms of dissolved oxygen (from <20 ppb to saturation), chlorination, flow rate, etc.

Full scale systems can be tested, including seawater heat exchangers, umbilicals, pumps and connections (valves, etc.). Bespoke seawater loops are built on purpose. Corrosion monitoring can also be implemented on site (potential loggers, cathodic protection and biofilm sensors, etc).   

The testbed offers

• Corrosion exposure in natural seawater
• Corrosion monitoring
• Modelling (cathodic protection, corrosion)
• Controlled seawater loops (temperature, flow rate, oxygen, chlorination etc)
• 4 pts bending tests in natural seawater

Natural seawater makes us unique

Artificial seawater is not always adapted for corrosion assessment of materials, since complex parameters involved in corrosion processes can hardly be reproduced. It includes the natural biofilm formation connected to bacterial activity.

In our testbed, the use of natural seawater continuously pumped from the bay of Atlantic Ocean makes our facilities rather unique in Europe for the testing of any kind of seawater systems, from small to large scales, with accurate control of test parameters.