Monitoring corrosion under insulation utilising electrochemical testing.

Newlands, Ben; Horgan, Michael; Minshull, Harry

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel sensor-based instrumented monitoring system for the specific detection of corrosion at the CUI interface. Electrochemical Testing (ET), Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) were all used to gather, process and validate the sensor output. A comprehensive literature review was firstly completed to understand the current industrial and research practises. The experimental methodology featured an experiment using a stainless-steel wire mesh at the CUI interface. The experiment compared the behaviour between four samples without the mesh and four with the stainless-steel wire mesh at the CUI interface, in order to monitor any corrosive activity. The mesh was found to be useful in measuring key parameters such as; cell impedance, scale resistance, coating capacitance, charge transfer resistance and the total cell resistance and capacitance. SEM and EDS were used once the experiment had reached the end of its duration. Both methods provided information about the corrosion products and mechanisms at the interface validating the findings of the electrochemical investigation. Certain limitations of the mesh were identified such as its willingness to corrode and limited lifespan. However, it was concluded that the mesh was a valuable method for extracting key information about the condition of the CUI interface.

Citation

NEWLANDS, B., HORGAN, M. and MINSHULL, H. 2023. Monitoring corrosion under insulation utilising electrochemical testing. Presented at the 4th International conference on health monitoring of civil and maritime structures (HeaMES 2023), 12-13 June 2023, [virtual event].

• Presentation Conference Type: Lecture
• Conference Name: 4th International conference on health monitoring of civil and maritime structures (HeaMES 2023)
• Conference Location: [virtual event]
• Start Date: Jun 12, 2023
• End Date: Jun 13, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 20, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 20, 2023
• Keywords: Sensors; Corrosion; Insulation; Electrochemical testing
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1992973
• Additional Information: Nadimul Faisal, Anil Prathuru and Vinooth Rajendran contributed to the research behind this presentation.