RTI uses cookies to offer you the best experience online. By clicking “accept” on this website, you opt in and you agree to the use of cookies. If you would like to know more about how RTI uses cookies and how to manage them please view our Privacy Policy here. You can “opt out” or change your mind by visiting: http://optout.aboutads.info/. Click “accept” to agree.
An analysis of the reaction distribution over a corroding pit is presented. If the liquid-phase conductivity and the interfacial rate constants for the metal-dissolution reaction are known, the results of this secondary current distribution problem can be used to estimate the maximum rate of pit growth. The approach taken involves the conformal mapping of the pit geometry onto a new coordinate system; the finished transformation is shown to remove the singularity at the pit edge and provide a bounded region over which only a limited number of mesh points are required to perform accurate numerical analysis. Numerical calculations for the pit dissolution rate subject to linear and Tafel polarization are fitted to simple expressions; as a consequence, the results of this work can be used without having to resort to numerical methods. For the linear polarization analysis, the results are generalized in a manner that allows one to consider an arbitrary number of reactions on the pit surface