Erosion-corrosion performance of nickel-aluminium bronze alloys in marine environments: recent developments

Abstract

Nickel-aluminium bronze (NAB) plays a critical role in seawater cooling of power stations, marine propulsion, and offshore energy applications. As the marine industry advances toward net-zero emissions and decarbonisation, extending asset lifetimes and improving energy efficiency have become essential. Despite casting standards designed to minimise selective phase attack, NAB often underperforms under erosion-corrosion conditions, particularly in environments involving cavitation and solid particle loading, leading to premature component failure, costly maintenance, and reduced operational efficiency. This review critically examines recent research on erosion-corrosion performance of NAB alloys, with a focus on surface condition and surface-environment interactions that govern degradation mechanisms. It highlights the influence of pre-conditioning treatments (e.g., shot peening, long-term seawater immersion), the resultant compressive residual surface stresses, and the role of oxide film formation in mitigating surface damage. The review also evaluates the impact of deposition techniques, including surface welding, friction stir welding, and explores the effects of alloying additions, such as chromium (Cr) and rare earth elements (Ce, Sm and Yb) on corrosion resistance and mechanical integrity. Additionally, it assesses the performance of coated NAB and associated nickel-based alloys being considered as alternative for geothermal applications. By assessing both cavitation and slurry erosion-corrosion studies, this review identifies key microstructural factors, such as -phase distribution, galvanic coupling, and work hardening, that influence synergy between mechanical and corrosion degradation. It also provides fresh insight into the urgent need for standardisation test protocol to enable meaningful comparisons across alloy variants and environmental conditions. Ultimately, this review provides guidance for the design and optimisation of NAB components for high performance, low-maintenance operation in aggressive marine environments.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Robert Wood: orcid.org/0000-0003-0681-9239

ORCID for Julian Wharton: orcid.org/0000-0002-3439-017X

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