Nondestructive detection and quantification of localized corrosion rates by electrochemical tomography

TL;DR

This paper introduces electrochemical tomography (ECT), a non-destructive method to detect, locate, and quantify localized corrosion rates in structures, validated through laboratory experiments, advancing towards practical field use.

Contribution

The paper presents a new theoretical and numerical formulation of ECT for corrosion detection, demonstrating its effectiveness in controlled experiments and moving it closer to real-world applications.

Findings

ECT accurately detects corrosion size and location

ECT provides good estimates of corrosion rates

Validation shows potential for field application

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.