REVIEW ON VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF THE WIRE BEAM ELECTRODE METHOD IN CORROSION MONITORING AND CORROSION PREVENTION STUDIES

摘要

An electrochemically integrated multi-electrode system, namely the wire beam electrode (WBE), has been developed into a means of measuring localized corrosion and other heterogeneous electrochemical processes. The aim is to extend conventional electrochemical thermodynamic and kinetic theories and methods that are based on an ideally uniform electrode surface to heterogeneous electrode surfaces. This paper presents a brief review on various applications of the WBE method, including the evaluation of organic coatings and rustproofing oil films; the monitoring and mapping of corrosion rates and patterns and the investigation of cathodic protection effects. Several recent technical developments to the WBE method have also been briefly discussed in this paper. These have included the combined use of the WBE, electrochemical noise analysis (ENA) and the scanning reference electrode technique (SRET): the WBE-R_n method - the combined use of the WBE and the noise resistance (R_n) to map the rates and patterns of uniform or localized corrosion; the WBE-Noise Signatures method - the combined use of the WBE and the noise signature to detect the origination and propagation of localized corrosion; and the WBE-SRET method - the combined use of the WBE and SRET to investigate localized corrosion from both the metallic and electrolyte phases of a corroding metal surface.