Author(s)

Elenwo Ephraim Ikechukwu^1*, Elenwo Onyinyechi Pauline²

¹Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Nigeria.
²Department of Physics, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Nigeria.

Environmental impacts are the changes that are observed on structures, metals, and other objects directly and indirectly on the environment. This research investigated the effects of corrosion on the physical properties of copper and aluminium materials. Water samples were collected from water bodies around Port Harcourt environs, including rain water. The materials used for the re-search (copper and aluminium) were pre-weighed and weight noted. Using the weight—loss tech-nique, the following observations was made on, the density, the sample exposed area and the times of exposure were all affected by the water samples. The results showed that marginal reduction in densities and the average corrosion rate for the metals was estimated in mills per year (MPY) as follows; for Aluminium 3.0770 g/cm³ from day (1) week (1) 1.3753 g/cm³ on day (31) week 4 after exposure in fresh water, and in brackish water, 0.5999 on 31st week (4) and no change for the (4) weeks in rain water. while for copper exposure to fresh water showed 0.6675 g/cm³ on day 31 week (4), brackish water, day (1) 1.375 g/cm³ and 0.179 on day 31st week (4) and on Rain water on day 31st week (4) 0.241 g/cm³ respectively.

Environmental, Impact, Corrosion, Physical Properties, Copper, Aluminum

Ikechukwu, E. and Pauline, E. (2015) Environmental Impacts of Corrosion on the Physical Properties of Copper and Aluminium: A Case Study of the Surrounding Water Bodies in Port Harcourt. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 3, 143-150. doi: 10.4236/jss.2015.32019.