Over the past few weeks we’ve seen lots of photographs depicting destroyed tanks and other vehicles. It seems like a high percentage of these blown up vehicles have significant areas of what appears to be rust on them. Sure vehicles are made of steel alloys which can of course oxidize, but it seems like there’s a lot more rust than you’d expect to see on vehicles exposed to the elements for what is only a few weeks.
Is it rust we’re looking at? If so, why are things oxidizing so quickly?
I noticed that as well. Perhaps they were burned, so give the appearance of rusting?
Fire is just rapid oxidation. Heat up most iron alloys enough, and they can rust rather quickly in the presence of oxygen.
Alternatively, rusting is just slow combustion (it’s even exothermic!)
I recall a story where a character was going to a house in a desert town during a war. There was a burned-out car on the road and he knew that it had only happened that day because it would have rusted up in the morning dew.
Not up to 21st century armoured metallurgy, but I just note that steel in general rusts if you even look at it funny, when there is no oil / paint on it.
A classic case is leaving a carbon steel knife in a moist sheath. Take it out a week later, and you’ll have plenty of rust.
This is the answer.
here’s a picture of a burned out car, that sure looks rusty.
But it’s not from the war in Ukraine.
The photo was taken in England, a few hours after a violent riot in the town of Lewisham back in 2011.
So maybe the “rust” you are seeing in the war photos isn’t rust…it’s just the usual way that vehicles look after a fire.
Why do you think the vehicles were " exposed to the elements for what is only a few weeks"? Maybe they had been stored outside for years, and were already rusted, although still operable.
Look at your brake rotors when you get home at night and they’ll be bright and shiny, but by morning they’ll have a noticeable amount of rust on them.
That’s what I assumed was going on. I don’t think these tanks looked like they rolled out of the factory two months ago. I think they’ve been sitting around doing nothing for years. IIRC, there was someone (here? reddit? TV?) saying they do inspections on military equipment and specifically mentioned that part of the reason some of these tanks were failing was because, from what they could tell, they hadn’t been maintained, or even turned on, for years.
I’m thinking ‘burning is rapid oxidation’ is the correct explanation here. We’re looking at vehicles that were set ablaze with violent explosions. The burning explanation is also consistent with the bombed Lewisham car image Chappachula shared.
Yeah, the week I quoted was a wild exaggeration, in the “too long” direction.
Plus a lot of the rust seems to be most concentrated where the fire appears to have been hottest… Top areas most rusted, etc. At the very least, it burns off the paint which would inhibit the rust process.
That’s what I was about to say. Unprotected steel will rust VERY fast. Like in a matter of a few days.
It seems to be a phenomenon called “flash rusting”, and happens very fast under the right circumstances- it starts within minutes in some cases.
The “right circumstances” generally mean bare metal and high humidity, both of which seem to be present in these situations- the weather looks kind of gloomy and rainy in all the war footage and photos I’ve seen thus far, and I’d bet the humidity is fairly high, or it’s raining/snowing a lot.
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When I got some old empty steel barrels to use as burn barrels I saw how the typical paint they have on the outside burns off once they get hot. Here is Gif someone took of the same thing happening. Note how the orange paint turns black-ish and the lettering fades out.
I saw that same thing happen to my barrels. By the next day the burnt off metal begins to get a thin surface coat of rust just from the moisture in the atmosphere (which usually condenses on the surface overnight when it cools off). When you seen BBQ or stove projects using old steel barrels you always see the guys sand down and re-paint the barrels with high-temperature paint, otherwise the same thing would happen.
As I kid if I’d leave my dad’s tools (side cutter/screwdrivers) out in the Yard overnight I’d always get in trouble the next day because they start to rust on the metal parts. So yes unprotected steel, especially having had any coating burned off, while start rusting in a matter of hours.
And that’s why they make high temperature paints, that can withstand being on your BBQ or fireplace without essentially sublimating like normal household paint would do.
Still probably not going to handle the kinds of fires these vehicles saw, though.
ISTR that some of the Russian machinery either came from or came through Crimea.
Crimea being on the Black Sea implies salt air – yet another accelerant to oxidation.
That could explain, in part, some measure of the situation for some fraction of the machines of war.
Anybody that’s lived near an ocean knows how much impact that has on patio furniture, railings, cars, bikes, etc.
It might be what is left of the paint after the heat of blast and or fire. If it is not all blown off, then it’s remains may turn quickly to the color of rust?