Corrosion in the coolant circuit of Pansarterrängbil 203

Abstract: The military vehicle, Pansarterrängbil 203 (PATGB 203) demonstrates a fault. There are some components in a coolant circuit that fail due to corrosion while others are unaffected. One of the affected components that will be investigated in this report is the water heater. The subject of this technical investigation has been an issue for FMV, Swedish Defence Materiel Administration since a decade. While seeking out the cause of the coolant circuit failing, this investigation aim to analyzing the underlying problems considering material, factors of corrosion and organization. In order to establish the origin of material and appearance of corrosion, experiments were performed. The experiments showed that the original material is an Al-Si alloy. The micrographs indicated varying stratification of the corrosion throughout the unit. The corrosive deposits consisted mainly of oxygen, silicon, aluminum and sodium. Consequently, the protecting passive oxide layer is compromised, which results in a direct connection between the coolant and the underlying material. This direct connection gives rise to the development of corrosion in the material. Clear underlying causes of the corrosion were not found but the most probable suggest on galvanic corrosion accelerated by a stray current. Properly grounding the components decreases the stray current in the system and is essential to avoid corrosion. If grounding the components is not sufficient, additional checks of the coolant with attention to the pH-value and the function of corrosion inhibitors may indicate corrosion at an earlier stage.