From Weather To Steel - Blog 6 - Yukta Yogeesh

24/August/2020

Impact of Weather conditions on the building material - Steel 

Temperature - Steel expands in summer, when the temperature is down, it might contract. This repeated expansion and contraction might affect the durability and the tensile strength of the steel. 

Humidity and Precipitation - The major factor that has an impact on steel - Corrosion, erosion, rusting - When there is moisture content in the air, the steel tends to react with the water. 

Wind - Contains salt content - steel is reactive to salt 

Disadvantages of Steel - Impact of weather conditions on Steel 

High atmospheric humidity increases the moisture content in air. A steel surface is allowed to begin to rust when the relative humidity in the air climbs above 50%, and steel surely rusts when the relative humidity reaches 80%. This can result in flash rust that collapses the coating. If it is painted, it might result in blistering and delamination of the surface coating. Basically, the coating expands and breaks due to the variation caused. It is recorded that 60-80% of all the coating failure cases are due to lack of maintenance or improper surface preparation. This step is done after casting, before coating. If the surface is not prepared, the coating will not last long and will become inefficient/purposeless. 

What can be done to sort this out ? 

1. Condition of the structure that exists 

2. Surface preparation and the application method 

3. Environmental conditions during the application and in-service 

4. Quality of the coating. 

5. After application of the coating, the following can be checked :- 

            Ventilation for a continuous movement of air can be brought. 

            A quality coating should be provided regularly and should be recommended in the specification document. 

            Intercoat adhesion should be improved. 

As I had mentioned in the earlier blog, i do believe that, for steel, 

"God is in the Coating" 

Yukta Yogeesh 


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