Evaluation of pitting corrosion by dynamic speckle pattern analysis

Abstract

Abstract There is an increasing interest in non-destructive and real-time high-resolution approaches for corrosion studies in metals. In this paper, we propose the dynamic speckle pattern method as a low-cost, easy-to-implement, and quasi in-situ optical technique for the quantitative evaluation of pitting corrosion. This type of corrosion occurs in a specific area of a metallic structure and causes holes formation leading to structural failure. A Custom 450 stainless steel sample, placed in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution and applied to a $$350 \,\hbox {mV}_{SCE}$$ 350 mV SCE potential to initiate the corrosion, is used as the sample. The speckle patterns formed by the scattering of a He-Ne laser light is changed over time due to any corrosion in the sample. The analysis of the time-integrate speckle pattern suggests that the growth rate of pitting decreases with time.