Corrosion Characteristics and Surface Protection of Coastal Infrastructure

Dear Colleagues,

Coastal and offshore infrastructure—encompassing building structures, bridges, marine oil and gas platforms, wind turbine towers and substructures, electrical substations, and transmission towers—faces unparalleled durability challenges. Prolonged exposure to harsh coastal environments, characterized by high humidity, salt fog, UV radiation, and cyclic loading, leads to accelerated degradation, primarily through corrosion. This significantly compromises structural integrity, safety, and service life while increasing maintenance costs and environmental risks. This Special Issue welcomes the submission of high-quality original research and review articles dedicated to advancing our understanding and the mitigation of durability issues in these critical assets.

We aim for this Special Issue to serve as a forum for papers focused on the following themes:

1. Degradation Mechanisms:

(1) Studies on atmospheric, splash zone, and submerged corrosion mechanisms for steels, concrete, and advanced composites.

(2) Stress corrosion cracking, corrosion fatigue, and multi-factor degradation models.

(3) Impact of microclimates, climate change, and extreme weather events on deterioration rates.

2. Protection Strategies and Advanced Materials:

(1) Coating Technology: Development and evaluation of novel coatings (e.g., graphene-enhanced, self-healing, superhydrophobic), multi-layer protection systems, and long-term performance validation.

(2) Corrosion Prevention: Advances in cathodic protection, corrosion-resistant alloys (e.g., duplex stainless steels), and surface treatments.

(3) Durable Concrete: Use of supplementary cementitious materials, corrosion inhibitors, non-metallic reinforcements, and performance of concrete in aggressive chloride-laden environments.

3. Monitoring, Assessment, and Lifecycle Management:

(1) Novel sensors, non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques, and remote monitoring for early corrosion detection.

(2) Predictive modeling for remaining service life and reliability-based lifecycle assessment.

(3) Robotics and AI-enabled inspection and maintenance strategies.

4. Case Studies and Forensic Engineering:

(1) In-depth analysis of field performance, failure investigations, and lessons learned from existing coastal infrastructure.

(2) Long-term exposure trials and data from real-world service.

Dr. Zhiquan Xing
Dr. Dong Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• coastal durability
• atmospheric corrosion
• offshore structures
• protective corrosion coatings
• wind turbine towers
• extreme environments
• transmission infrastructure
• performance modeling
• damage evolution modeling of coatings lifecycle management
• reliability coatings