A Review of Different Sensors Applied to Corrosion Detection and Monitoring

Between 1999 and 2001, corrosion-related costs accounted for 3.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (or $276 billion a year) in the US. To minimize the economical loss requires accurately predicting and effectively preventing corrosion. Generally, corrosion is the deterioration of metal by its interaction with a combination of physical and chemical environments. Therefore, corrosion detection can be indirectly achieved by monitoring the accumulation of corrosion products or the physical or chemical changes they cause, e.g. appearance, acoustic and electromagnetic transmission, pH, etc. On the other hand, corrosion can be directly monitored by its electrochemical characteristics such as corrosion current, electrochemical noise, corrosion potential. Each of these corrosion monitoring techniques is worth its own fulfilled discussion. Instead of go through each techniques exhaustively, we will just give a general review of the major corrosion monitoring techniques across different research areas, with the intention of a contribution to the interdisciplinary research of corrosion monitoring techniques.