Cellular automaton model for simulation of metastable pitting

Abstract

As a new simulation method, cellular automata (CA) approach had been used in a number of areas, including electrochemistry and corrosion science research. In this work, a probability CA model was developed to simulate the growth of metastable pits. The simulation imaged the morphology of the pit and calculated the time dependences of pitting current and pitting current density. Results demonstrated that the CA approach is capable of simulating corrosion pit in terms of the pit morphology and pit growth kinetics. During growth of a hemispherical metastable pit controlled by diffusion, the time dependence of pitting current follows I = f(t ²) law. Furthermore, it is determined that, for the simulation results to be consistent with the experimental results, an optimal range for variable d should be 0·1-0·25.