Nondestructive detection and quantification of localized corrosion rates by electrochemical tomography

Abstract

Localized corrosion is one of the most common causes of early degradation of engineering structures. To non-destructively determine the location, size and rate of localized corrosion in porous media, a new technique, electrochemical tomography (ECT), has been theoretically and numerically formulated. The current work shows the application of ECT to measure corrosion rates in a controlled laboratory setup, with a stable electrolyte and well-defined macro-cell. The results show that ECT is able to replicate the corrosion size and location and can give a good estimation of the corrosion rate. Moreover, the validation of ECT on a well defined localized corrosion system, brings the technique closer to future field applications.