Abstract:
Corrosion is an electrochemical phenomenon which occurs mainly due to undesirable
interaction of the metal with its environment. It is a pronounced degradation mechanism
affecting a wide range of industrial processes. It is capable of directly impacting the
economy as well as may lead to catastrophic situations. The pipelines in industries are
often subject to aggressive environments, making corrosion process inevitable. Repairs,
replacements and material loss are often very costly. Since corrosion is an insidious
process and often the damage is identified when it is too late, therefore a mechanism to
study corrosion rate in real time is necessary. The project aims to develop an in-situ
technique that gives real time corrosion rate in pipelines using a probe inserted in the
pipeline.
The probe is designed based on the principle of linear polarization resistance and uses the
setup provided by GAMRY®. To support the experiment a flow loop was created using
PPRC pipes to provide flow conditions like that in industries. This can help analyze life
time of a pipeline in service conditions and keep a check on the integrity of the pipe line.
The probe was studies on three pipeline materials with increasing flow rates in aerated
NaCl solution with either increasing salt content or varying pH. The working electrodes
used were AISI 1020 Steel, Grate 702 Zirconium, Grade 3004 Aluminum. A relationship
between pipeline material, salt content, flow rate and pH was effectively developed, and
the probe system design was tested to be suitable to monitor corrosion rate of pipelines.
