Abstract
Steel is generally not corrosion resistant to water with formation of non protective rusts on its surface. Rusts are composed of iron oxides such as $Fe_3O_4$, $\alpha-$, $\beta-$, $\gamma-$and ${\delta}-FeOOH$. However, steel, particularly weathering steel containing small amounts of Cu, Ni and Cr etc., shows good corrosion resistance against rural, industrial or marine environment. Its corrosion rate is exceedingly small as compared with that of carbon steel. According to the exposure test results undertaken in outdoor environments, the atmospheric corrosion rate for weathering steel is only 1 mm for a century. Atmospheric corrosion for steels proceeds under alternate dry and wet conditions. Dry condition is encountered on steel surface on fine or cloudy days, and wet condition is on rainy or snowy days. The reason why weathering steel shows superior atmospheric corrosion resistance is due to formation of corrosion protective rusts on its surface under very thin water layer. The protective rusts are usually composed of two layer rusts; the upper layer is ${\gamma}-FeOOH$ termed as lepidocrocite, and inner layer is nano-particle ${\alpha}-FeOOH$ termed as goethite. This paper is aimed at elucidating the atmospheric corrosion mechanism for steel in comparison with corrosion in bulky water environment by use of empirical data.The summary is as follows: 1. No corrosion protective rusts are formed on steel in bulky water. 2. Atmospheric corrosion for steel is the corrosion under wetting and drying conditions. Corrosion and passivation occur alternately on steel surface. Steel, particularly weathering steel with small amounts of alloying elements such as Cu, Ni and Cr etc. enhances forming corrosion protective rusts by passivation.