abrasion resistance—the ability of a material to resist being worn away and to maintain its original appearance and structure when subjected to rubbing, scraping, or wear.

abrasive—a solid substance that, owing to its hardness, toughness, size, shape, consistency, or other properties, is suitable for grinding, cutting, roughening, polishing, or cleaning a surface by friction or high-velocity impact.

abrasive blast cleaning—cleaning and roughening of a surface produced by the high-velocity impact of an abrasive that is propelled by the discharge of pressurized fluid from a blast nozzle or by a mechanical device such as a centrifugal blasting wheel. [also referred to as abrasive blasting]

abrasive blasting—see abrasive blast cleaning.

accelerator—a chemical substance that increases the rate at which a chemical reaction (e.g., curing) would otherwise occur.

AC impedance—see electro-chemical impedance.

acrylic—type of resin polymerized from acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, esters of these acids, or acrylonitrile.

activator—a chemical substance that initiates a chemical reaction (e.g., curing). Heat and radiation may also serve as activators for some chemical reactions.

active—(1) a state of a metal surface that is corroding without significant influence of reaction product. (2) the negative direction of electro-depotential.

active-passive cell—an electro-chemical cell in which the anode is a metal in the active state and the cathode is the same metal in the passive state.

adductcuring agent—a material that is formed by prereacting the curing agent with a portion of the resin component of the coating.

adhesion—the state in which two surfaces are held together by chemical inter facial forces, mechanical interlocking forces, or both.

aeration cell—see differential aeration cell.

aging—(1) the process of exposing materials to an environment for an interval of time. (2)change in metallurgical properties that generally occurs slowly at room temperature (natural aging) and more rapidly at higher temperature (artificial aging).

airdrying—process by which an applied wet coat converts to a dry coating film by evaporation of solvent or reaction with oxygen as a result of simple exposure to air without intentional addition of heat or a curing agent.

airless spraying—process of spraying coating liquids using hydraulic pressure, not air pressure, to atomize.

alkyd—type of resin formed by the reaction of polyhydric alcohols and polybasic acids, part of which is derived from saturated or unsaturated oils or fats.

alligatoring—pronounced wide cracking over the surface of a coating, which has the appearance of alligator hide.

alloy steel—an iron-based alloy containing carbon (usually less than 2.5 mass percent),manganese (usually greater than 0.25 mass percent), and specified minimum quantities of one or more alloying elements other than manganese, silicon, and copper, but does not contain 10.5 mass percent or greater chromium.

alternate immersion—exposure to environmental cycles, each involving immersion in a fluid for a period of time followed by removal from that fluid for another period of time.

amphoteric metal—a metal that is susceptible to corrosion in both acidic and alkaline environments.

anaerobic—absence of airor free (molecular) oxygen.

anchor pattern—see surface profile.

anion—a negatively charged ion.

anneal—heat to and hold at a temperature appropriate for the specific material and then cool at a suitable rate, for such purposes as reducing hardness, improving machineability,or obtaining desired properties.

anode—the electrode of an electro-chemical cell at which oxidation occurs. (Electrons flow away from the anode in the external circuit. It is usually the electrode where corrosion occurs and metal ions enter solution.)

anode cap—an electrical insulating material placed over the end of the anode at the lead wire connection.

anode corrosion efficiency—the ratio of the actual corrosion (mass loss)of an anode to the theoretical corrosion (mass loss) calculated from the quantity of electricity that has passed between the anode and cathode using Faraday's law.

anodic inhibitor—a corrosion inhibitor whose primary action is to reduce the rate of the anodic reaction, producing a positive shift in corrosion potential.

anodic polarization— (1) the change of electrode potential caused by an anodic current flowing across the electrode/electrolyte interface.(2)  a forced noble (positive) shift in electro-depotential. [See polarization .]

anodic protection—a technique to reduce the corrosion rate of a metal surface by polarizing that surface to a more oxidizing potential.

anodizing—an electro-chemical oxidation process that converts the surface of a metal (such as aluminum or titanium) to an oxide coating.

anolyte—the electrolyte adjacent to the anode of an electro-chemical cell.

antifouling—preventing fouling. [See fouling.]

atmospheric zone—the portion of a marine structure that extends upward from the splash zone and is exposed to sun, wind, water spray, and rain.

attenuation—electrical losses in a conductor caused by current flow in the conductor.

Auger electron spectroscopy—analytical technique in which the sample surface is irradiated with low-energy electrons and the energy spectrum of electrons emitted from the surface is measured.

austenite—the face-centered cubic crystalline phase of iron or iron-based alloys.

austenitic/ferritic stainless steel—see duplex stainless steel.

austenitizing—forming austenite by heating iron or iron-based alloys to a temperature in the transformation range (partial austenitizing) or above the transformation range(complete austenitizing).

auxiliary electrode—see counter electrode.