Investigations Into the Statistical Properties of ECN From Corroding Marine Systems

The random nature of sea waves and the aggressive corrosive environment of seawater make corrosion an important factor in deciding the safe operational life of offshore steel structures. The consistent rise in offshore oil exploration activities in the last 2 decades has compelled structural engineers and researchers to better understand, the process of corrosion in offshore steel structures. The various electrochemical methods available for corrosion monitoring are polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and electro chemical noise (ECN) techniques. In offshore industry, the reliable interpretation of electrochemical noise is particularly valuable since it promises new type of online monitoring device. This paper introduces ECN as an online corrosion-monitoring tool for marine structures. The paper discusses the laboratory experiments conducted on test specimens to collect data related to the electrochemical behavior of structural steel such as the polarization data, impedance measurements, electrochemical, potential, and current noise measurements. Investigations were carried out on MS coupons surface prepared and coated with anticorrosive and antifouling paints. An electrochemical workstation capable of collecting data from specimens coated with paint was used for noise data collection. Static corrosion tests have been done and the corrosion rate and corrosion resistance of the coatings were assessed using the statistical analysis. The electrochemical noise data were compared with that of polarization and impedance data and a good correlation between corrosion rates was obtained. The polarization and noise resistance were found to be similar in trend but with variation in numerical values. Statistical parameters like mean, standard deviation, skew, and kurtosis were generated from the obtained noise. These parameters were then processed to obtain noise resistance and corrosion rate. The results were compared with that of polarization and impedance values. The corrosion rate comparison showed a deviation of 10% from polarization with ECN giving the upper bound values. The damage prediction and expected life prediction of a steel jacket platform were also performed using the data collected. The experiments showed a good correlation between the noise resistances obtained from various electrochemical methods. The aim of introducing the ECN as an online monitoring tool for marine structures especially in on-life offshore structures gives valid data with good results and shows good sensitivity.