The Nature, Mechanism and Extent of Deterioration of Engineering Materials Due to Air Pollution

Air Pollution has long been a significant source of economic loss in urban and industrialised areas. It has been causing wide spread damage to non-living materials in a number of ways such as, corrosion of both ferrous and non ferrous metals, destruction of leather, cracking of rubber, damage to building materials, glass and ceramics, resulting in heavy economic losses.
Various environmental pollutants responsible for these damaging affects have been categorised. The mechanism by which these pollutants attack and damage materials have been examined and the effect of these pollutants on various engineering materials have been brought out to asses the extent of damage and to determine the importance of air pollution tn producing damage. This study is necessary to asses the true cost of air pollution damage in order to put air pollution control programmes on a rational basis.