Numerical Simulation of Pitting Corrosion of Stainless Steel in NaCl Solution

Based on the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, an LB corrosion model for pitting corrosion of stainless steel was established to simulate electrochemical reactions, multiphase multicomponent flow and transmission between solid and liquid phases. By using this model, the change of pitting morphology and the content distribution of different components in the whole process of pitting corrosion of stainless steel were obtained. This model could clearly explain the reaction mechanism of pitting corrosion of stainless steel, including pitting nucleation, metastable process of pitting corrosion, and steady state process of pitting corrosion. Comparing the simulation results with the test results, it could be found that the trend of the corrosion volume with time was roughly the same, which proved the accuracy of the simulation method.