CORROSION ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 2017

VOL. 52, NO. 6, 432–440

https://doi.org/10.1080/1478422X.2017.1320117

Electrochemical noise monitoring of the atmospheric corrosion of steels:

identifying corrosion form using wavelet analysis
Chao Maa, Shizhe Songa, Zhiming Gaoa, Jihui Wanga, Wenbin Hua, Yashar Behnamianc and Da-Hai Xia a,b

a
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Material Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China;
b
CAS Key Laboratory of Nuclear Materials and Safety Assessment, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, Liaoning,
P.R. China; cDepartment of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The early stage atmospheric corrosion of T91 and Q235B steels exposed to Tianjin’s urban atmosphere Received 9 March 2017
over 20 days was studied using two electrochemical probes via an electrochemical noise (EN) Accepted 12 April 2017
technique. To identify the corrosion process and the corrosion form of the two steels, EN data were
KEYWORDS
analysed by statistics and wavelet transform. The results revealed that the wavelet energy of Atmospheric corrosion;
decomposed EN mainly located at high-frequency level for Q235B steel, whereas it mainly located electrochemical noise;
at the low-frequency level for T91 steel. Analyses of surface images confirmed that Q235B steel corrosion monitoring;
underwent uniform corrosion whereas T91 steel suffered from localised corrosion. The obtained wavelet transform; corrosion
noise resistance correlated well with weight loss data. form

Introduction
Atmospheric corrosion of metal is one of the most common
and important corrosion degradation processes. This kind of
corrosion is an electrochemical corrosion process under a
thin electrolyte film [1]. The atmospheric corrosion of metals
is mainly determined by the relative humidity, wetting time,
temperature, light irradiation time, impurity ions, pH, acid
fog, ion concentration, among other factors [2–4]. It has
been reported that the global economic losses caused by
atmospheric corrosion is up to US$100 million each year
[5], and there is a need to on-line monitor atmospheric cor-
rosion of metallic materials for service life evaluation and safe
operation [6].
To achieve the on-line corrosion monitoring of metal, the
measurement technique must be reliable and can be applied
in an outdoor atmosphere for a long time. Traditional
methods such as weight loss can obtain the average corrosion
rate for a certain time, but the instant corrosion behaviour
cannot be acquired. In addition, weight loss is not very suit-
able for identifying the early stage corrosion because the
weight loss has very small level [7]. In recent years, electro-
chemical methods including electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy (EIS) and electrochemical noise (EN) have
been applied to on-line corrosion monitoring. Yadav et al.
[8] and Thee et al. [9] used EIS measured at 105–0.01 Hz to
study the simulated atmospheric corrosion of galvanised
steel and weathering steel in a wet–dry cycling condition.
One of the pitfalls of EIS measurement is that it usually
takes some time to complete the data acquisition process at
the whole frequency range. In view of this, Nishikata et al.
[10] proposed to use impedance at 10 mHz (Z10mHz) to on-
line monitor the atmospheric corrosion of weathering steel
and found that Z10mHz correlated well with the weight loss
data. EIS has been successfully used in atmospheric corrosion
monitoring, but its setup is usually complicated. To make the
on-line monitoring device more portable and light in weight,
investigators began to use EN for on-line corrosion monitor-
ing in recent years [11–15]. The advantages of using EN to
monitor atmospheric corrosion are as follows: (1) EN exper-
iments are easy to set up, (2) EN is an in situ electrochemical
method that eliminates the need to apply an external signal
for the collection of experimental data (this is big different
from EIS), (3) EN can obtain the instant corrosion process
rapidly and (4) EN can analyse the corrosion mechanism of

CONTACT Da-Hai Xia dahaixia@tju.edu.cn Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Material Science and Engineering, Tianjin
University, Tianjin 300072, P.R. China
© 2017 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Institute

an electrochemical system without establishing its electroche-
mical model in advance.
For on-line atmospheric corrosion monitoring using EN,
the measurement is usually conducted at zero resistance
ammeter (ZRA) mode under which the electrochemical
potential noise (EPN) and electrochemical current noise
(ECN) can be recorded synchronously. In atmospheric con-
ditions where the corrosion is proceeding under an extremely
thin electrolyte film, two major issues should be considered.
One critical issue is to establish the electrode system under
the atmospheric condition for the EN measurement. For
example, Jamali et al. [16] used 0.5 M NaCl soaked filter
paper as the electrolyte to perform EIS and EN to evaluate
the corrosion resistance of paint coating. García-Ochoa
et al. [12] used a copper electrode and a wetted cloth to per-
form the EN test on copper surface in an outdoor atmos-
phere. Although these electrochemical measurements have
been successfully set up, the soaked filter paper and cloth
would change the surface state and may accelerate the cor-
rosion rate of the tested materials. As a result, the corrosion
tests were not conducted in the real atmosphere condition.
Therefore, there is a need to establish a more suitable elec-
trode system for atmospheric corrosion monitoring.
Another critical issue is how to extract useful information
from the EN spectrum by using signal processing methods
[17]. Generally, time domain (mainly refers to statistical
methods), frequency domain (such as fast Fourier transform,
FFT) and time–frequency domain (such as wavelet trans-
form) are three major analysis methods. Although FFT is a
common method of EN data analysis, one of the pitfalls of
FFT is that it has a fixed resolution caused by the width of
the windowing function [18]. A wide window gives better fre-
quency resolution but poor time resolution. A narrow win-
dow gives good time resolution but poor frequency
resolution [17]. EN signals are frequently non-stationary;
wavelet transform is more suitable for analysing non-station-
ary signals [19]. Wavelet transform can transform the EN
data into a series of signals with different frequencies. The
energy distribution of each signal can be calculated, and
then the energy distribution plot (EDP) of all signals can be
obtained. EDP contains the information about the
Table 1. Chemical composition of Q235B and T91 steels (wt-%).
Steel C Mo P V Mn
Q235B 0.21 – 0.017 – 0.58
T91 0.10 0.89 – 0.20 0.40
Figure 1. Microstructure of the metal materials used as electrodes in the atmospheric corrosion probe (a) Q235B steel and (b) T91 steel.
CORROSION ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 433
mechanism of the reaction process. The position of the maxi-
mum relative energy in the EDP corresponds to the dominant
process in the corrosion processes, and a change in the pos-
ition can reflect evolution of the corrosion process [20,21].
This work aims to establish a suitable electrode system for
atmospheric corrosion monitoring and to identify the cor-
rosion process by statistics and wavelet transform. Two elec-
trochemical probes were used to monitor the atmospheric
corrosion of Q235B and T91 steels; subsequently, the cor-
rosion form and corrosion process during early stage atmos-
pheric corrosion were discussed.
Experimental procedure
Materials
The chemical compositions of Q235B and T91 steels are
shown in Table 1. Q235B is a low carbon steel, and T91 is
a martensitic heat-resistant steel. The microstructures of
Q235B and T91 are shown in Figure 1(a) and (b), respect-
ively. Q235B steel has a lamellar pearlite structure with a
small amount of ferrite. The T91 steel has a needle-like ferrite
structure.
Atmospheric corrosion probes and EN measurement
Two modified time of wetness probes were used in the atmos-
pheric corrosion monitoring, and one of the probe is shown
in Figure 2. For each probe, three nominally identical
Q235B or T91 electrodes were embedded into the poly-
urethane sealant. The electrode on the left was used as the
reference electrode (RE), and the other two electrodes were
used as working electrodes (WEs), marked as WE1 and
WE2. Each Q235B or T91 electrode had an exposed area of
4.2 cm2; non-working surfaces were covered with a poly-
urethane sealant. A thin polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
film with a thickness of 0.2 mm was placed between adjacent
electrodes, and insulating glue was painted between them.
The two atmospheric corrosion probes were exposed to the
outdoor atmosphere without a cover in Tianjin. Tianjin is
located at east longitude 117°38′ , latitude 38°98′ and 5 m
Cr Ni Si Nb S Cu Fe
– – 0.21 – 0.036 0.020 98.927
8.90 0.12 0.24 0.08 – – 89.07
434 C. MA ET AL.

method in DC removal [24]. Time and frequency domain

analyses of the EN data such as the standard deviation of
the current, the standard deviation of the potential and the
noise resistance Rn were calculated.
The standard deviation is given by


















 N
1 
s= ( X i −m ) 2 , (2)
N i=1

where σ is the standard deviation, N is the number of data

points, Xi is the i-th data point and μ is the average value
of the overall data.
Rn is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation of
the EPN divided by the standard deviation of the ECN, and
it is inversely proportional to the corrosion rate when both
WEs have the same activity and the corrosion process is
uniform.

Figure 2. (a) Electrochemical probe for atmospheric corrosion monitoring (the
three electrodes are made of Q235B or T91); (b) a schematic diagram of EN
measurement using a ZRA (WE, working electrode, RE, reference electrode, ‘E’
means potential, ‘I’ means current).
Wavelet analysis
To identify the corrosion form, the EN data were decomposed
to wavelet crystals at different levels and wavelet approxi-
mation. The energy contribution of a wavelet crystal, which
is commonly used in EN analysis, is defined below. The energy
contribution of each crystal to the overall signal is given by

1 2 J 2
N

Ejd = d
k=1 j,k
(j = 1, 2, . . . , J), (3)
above sea level. The probes were placed at 45° angles to the E
floor during the atmospheric corrosion monitoring 1 2 J 2
N

experiments.
The EN system comprised a Compact FieldPoint (CFP)
industrial controller module (National Instruments, NI), a
Field-Point analog input module CFP-AI-118 (NI) and a
ZF3 Potentiostat (Shanghai Zhengfeng Company), which
was used to constitute the ZRA test circuit [19]. The CFP sys-
tem was used to acquire potential and current data. The
potential and current were amplified and digitised by using
a 16-bit A/D converter with a resolution of 0.03 mV and
0.3 nA. A low-pass filter of 10 Hz was applied during data
recording [22]. EN was measured under ZRA mode, the
EPN was recorded between RE and WE1 and the ECN was
recorded between the two working electrodes (WE1 and
WE2). The test frequency of EN was set at 2 Hz, because
EN in corrosion reaction is considered to be noise at low fre-
quency, as claimed by Cottis in his review paper [23].
Temperature and relative humidity were recorded every
10 min with a DL-WS20 data recorder. Weight loss data at
10 and 20 days were obtained and were converted to polaris-
ation resistance according to the following equation:
ba bc B a function of the wavelet energy D1 or A7. To obtain the
Rp = = ,
2.303(ba + bc ) · icorr icorr
where Rp is polarisation resistance and ba and bc are Tafel
constants for anodic reaction and cathodic reaction,
B = ba bc /2.303(ba + bc ).
Statistics and wavelet analysis of the electrochemical
noise spectrum
Statistics analysis
The EN data were batch processed using Labview 8.6. First
the direct current (dc) component was removed from original
EN data by a five-order polynomial fitting, a frequently used
EJs = s ,
k=1 J,k
(4)
E
where SJ,K and dj,k are the wavelet coefficients. The orthogon-
ality of the wavelets allows calculation of the overall energy
using
J
E = EJs + Ed .
j=1 j
(5)
The number of iteration steps J is defined by the user. It is
experimentally determined that for a level J = 7, the valu-
able mechanistic information is captured in detail crystals
D1–D7 and wavelet approximation A7 [25,26]. The type
of the used wavelet transformation was db4, which is a
Daubechies wavelet [26]. Short timescale crystals, typically
D1 and D2, are associated with uniform corrosion. Long
timescale crystal A7 provides information on localised
corrosion.
In the present paper, energy values of D1 and A7 are
calculated every 1 h, and the cumulative probability curves
for D1 and A7 are used as indicators for corrosion process
identification. The cumulative probability, p, was plotted as
(1)
cumulative probability, the parameter values were sorted
into ascending order and p was derived as n/(N + 1),
where n is the value rank in the sorted list, and N is the
frequency of occurrence of the value. The results have
been presented to clearly show the distribution of the
values and allow for easy comparisons with previous
results.
Corrosion morphology
The morphology of Q235B and T91 after exposure to the
Tianjin urban atmosphere was observed by a KEYENCE
VHX-5000 microscope.

Results and discussion
EN monitoring results of Q235B steel
Figure 3(a,b) shows the EPN and ECN measured by a Q235B
steel probe that was exposed to an outdoor atmosphere in
Tianjin over 20 days. Figure 3(c,d) shows relative humidity
and temperature values during a 20-day exposure. The rela-
tive humidity and temperature fluctuate in opposite direc-
tions over the 20-day period: when the temperature rises,
the humidity falls; when the temperature is low, the humidity
is high. The temperature ranges from 8 to 30.6°C, and the
relative humidity ranges from 13.4% to almost 100%.
Figure 3(a,b) shows that EPN and ECN fluctuate around
0 mV and 0 nA, respectively. The EPN and ECN have the
same variation trends: (1) When the humidity is low, the
ECN and EPN amplitudes are very small, only a few
nanoamps and millivolts, respectively, indicating that the cor-
rosion rate is significantly low. (2) When the relative humid-
ity is increased to 65% or even higher, the fluctuation
amplitudes of the ECN and EPN increase obviously; there-
fore, the corrosion rate of the Q235B steel is significantly
increased accordingly.
Figure 3(f,g) shows the calculated standard deviation of
ECN and EPN, respectively. The maximum value of the stan-
dard deviation of the ECN is 35.4 nA cm−2, and the maxi-
mum value for EPN is 7.88 mV. As the relative humidity
increases, both of the standard deviations of ECN and EPN
increase, illustrating that the corrosion reactions are acceler-
ated. The obtained noise resistance Rn is shown in Figure 3(e).
The evolution of Rn is closely linked to the humidity: Rn and
humidity have the same variation trends. As the humidity
increases, Rn decreases accordingly; as the humidity
decreases, Rn increases accordingly.
Q235B is a kind of low carbon steel, which shows poor
corrosion resistance in the atmosphere, a layer of rust
forms on the surface of the electrode in a short time. The
impact of this rust layer on the corrosion resistance in the
early stage can be reflected in the EN. Observing the data
Figure 3. EN monitoring results of Q235B steel exposed to Tianjin urban atmosphere over 20 days. (a) Relative humidity; (b) temperature; (c) EPN; (d) ECN; (e) noise
resistance; (f) ECN standard deviation and (g) EPN standard deviation (some data are lacking in Figure 3 due to a power outage).
CORROSION ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 435
over 20 days, the standard deviations of ECN and EPN
decrease with time. For instance, after 16 days, the standard
deviations of ECN and EPN are lower than those at the initial
couple of days. This implies that the rust layer would protect
the metal from corrosion to some extent.
To study the atmospheric corrosion process of Q235B in
detail, three groups of EPN and ECN data obtained on day
3, day 9 and day 19 in the same weather conditions (i.e. on
rainy days when the metal surface is totally wetted) are com-
pared in Figure 4. The reason for selecting these three data is
that we have to compare the EN data in the same humidity,
because the humidity would affect the amplitudes of EPN
and ECN. These EPN and ECN data are selected from
Figure 3 on day 3, day 9 and day 19, respectively. It can be
seen from Figure 4 that, at the beginning stage of atmospheric
exposure, the amplitudes of ECN and EPN of Q235B are lar-
ger than those on day 9 and day 19. On day 3, the maximum
amplitudes of ECN and EPN are 19.1 nA and 4.6 mV,
respectively; however, maximum amplitudes of ECN and
EPN decrease to 3 nA and 2.3 mV, respectively, on day
9. These two values continue to decrease to 0.58 nA and
0.96 mV, respectively, on day 19. The decrease in ECN and
EPN amplitudes is due to the formation of a rust layer on
the Q235B surface. As the exposure time is prolonged, the
formation of rust layer may retard the mass transfer process
of the anodic reaction.
To identify the corrosion process more visually, the prob-
ability density distribution of EPN and ECN shown in
Figure 4 is analysed by statistical analysis. The probability
density distributions are plotted as a function of the EPN
and ECN amplitudes, as shown in Figure 5. The probability
density distribution curve shows that, for Q235B steel, the
EPN and ECN distributions are mainly concentrated around
0, and the maximum density values are located at the centre.
As the rust layer becomes thicker and the EPN and ECN dis-
tribution becomes narrower, the corrosion rate of Q235B is
decreased. The probability density distribution curve implies
that both EPN and ECN fluctuate around 0, and there is no
436 C. MA ET AL.
Figure 4. Typical EN spectrum of Q235B steel on rainy days. (a–c) EPN spectrum on days 3, 9 and 19, respectively; (d–f) ECN spectrum on days 3, 9, and 19,
respectively.
apparent transient peaks existed in the EN spectrum. This
correlates well with the characteristic of EN during uniform
corrosion [27].
Figure 5. Probability density distribution plot of EPN and ECN shown in Figure 4;
(a) probability density distribution of the EPN of Q235B on days 3, 9 and 19; (b)
probability density distribution of the ECN of Q235B on days 3, 9 and 19.
EN monitoring results of T91 steel
Figure 6(a,b) shows EPN and ECN data of T91 steel probe
exposed to the Tianjin outdoor atmospheric environment
for 20 days. Figure 6(c,d) shows the relative humidity and
temperature values during a 20-day exposure. The tempera-
ture and relative humidity fluctuate in opposite directions
over the 20-day period. The temperature ranges from 10.5
to 30.1°C, and the relative humidity ranges from 20.5% to
almost 100%.
The ECN and EPN of the T91 steel fluctuate around
0. When the temperature is relatively high and the humidity
is relatively low (in dry condition), fluctuation of the ECN
and EPN amplitudes is small: 0.5 nA and 4.9 mV, respect-
ively. ECN and EPN amplitudes remain basically unchanged
during the dry condition. Under this condition, the corrosion
rate is extremely low because there is no continuous thin elec-
trolyte on metal surface. However, when the relative humidity
increases (i.e. on rainy days), the ECN amplitude fluctuation
significantly increases, reaching to 100 nA. The increased
ECN amplitude indicates that the corrosion rate of T91
steel in the high humidity condition is accelerated. The
EPN of T91 steel also changes with the change in relative
humidity and temperature, and the trend of the EPN changes
are consistent with the trend of the ECN fluctuation.
Figure 6(f,g) shows the calculated standard deviations of
ECN and EPN, respectively. The maximum values of the stan-
dard deviations of the ECN and the EPN are 22.6 nA and
11.10 mV, respectively. It is generally accepted that EPN is
related to the type of corrosion whereas ECN is associated
with corrosion intensity [27]. At dry conditions with lower
humidity, the ECN standard deviation value is low, leading
to a very low corrosion rate of T91 steel. On rainy days with
high relative humidity, the corrosion rate is increased, as indi-
cated by the increased standard deviation of ECN.
To further study the atmospheric corrosion process of T91,
EPN and ECN data were collected on day 8, day 10 and day 19
 CORROSION ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 437

Figure 6. EN monitoring results of T91 steel exposed to Tianjin urban atmosphere over 20 days. (a) Relative humidity; (b) temperature; (c) EPN; (d) ECN; (e) noise
resistance; (f) ECN standard deviation and (g) EPN standard deviation. (Some data are lacking in Figure 3 due to a power outage.)

under rainy days when the metal surface is totally wetted.
Figure 7(a–c) shows the EPN on day 8, day 10 and day 19,
and the corresponding ECN is shown in Figure 7(d–f), respect-
ively. Many transient peaks can be seen in both EPN and ECN
spectra of T91 steel; such peaks are usually linked to passive
film breakdown and repassivation. On rainy days, ECN and
EPN amplitudes are 2.0 nA and 1.0 mV, respectively. Com-
parisons of (a, d) with (b, e) and (c, f) in Figure 7 indicate
that EPN and ECN amplitudes do not increase or decrease sig-
nificantly with the extension of time, revealing that the cor-
rosion rate did not change remarkably on days 8, 10 and 19.
The statistical analyses of EPN and ECN shown in Figure 7
are presented in Figure 8, in which the probability density
distributions are plotted as a function of EPN/ECN ampli-
tudes. The probability density distribution curve of EPN pre-
sents several peaks, indicating that the EPN distribution of
T91 steel is dispersed. The EPN probability densities of T91
steel are basically unchanged with a fluctuation amplitude
of about 1.5 mV. The probability density distribution of
ECN is basically unchanged except on day 10 where it is
slightly wider, indicating that the corrosion rate of T91 steel
in rainy conditions is basically unchanged. The probability
density distribution curve implies that the dispersed distri-
bution is due to the transient peaks existed in the EN spec-
trum. This correlates well with the characteristic of EN
during localised corrosion.

Figure 7. Typical EN spectrum of T91 steel at rainy days. (a–c) EPN spectrum on days 8, 10 and 18, respectively; and (d–f) ECN spectrum on days 8, 10 and 18,
respectively.
438 C. MA ET AL.
Figure 8. Probability density distribution plot of EPN and ECN shown in Figure 7;
(a) probability density distribution of the EPN of T91 on days 8, 10 and 18;
(b) probability density distribution of the ECN of T91 on days 8, 10 and 18.
Corrosion form identification
To identify the corrosion process and further understand the
underlying corrosion mechanism, the EN data were analysed
by wavelet transform, and wavelet energy at high frequency D1
and low frequency A7 are calculated and compared for the two
steels. To compare the wavelet energies more visually, the cumu-
lative probability p was plotted as a function of the wavelet ener-
gies D1 and A7, as shown in Figures 9 and 10, respectively.
Figure 9 shows a comparison of the cumulative probability
distribution of D1 obtained from EN for T91 and Q235B
probes during a 20-day exposure to an outdoor atmosphere.
The D1 energy of Q235B is a little bit higher than the D1
energy of T91. Overall, the wavelet energy of Q235B is mainly
Figure 9. Cumulative probability distribution of high-frequency energy D1
obtained from EN data for T91 and Q235B probes during a 20-day exposure
to an outdoor atmosphere in Tianjin.
Figure 10. Cumulative probability distribution of low-frequency energy A7
obtained from EN for T91 and Q235B probes during a 20-day exposure to an
outdoor atmosphere in Tianjin.
distributed at relatively high frequency. Uniform corrosion
usually occurs on the whole metal surface, and uniform cor-
rosion represents a faster corrosion process than localised
corrosion. In other words, uniform corrosion process mainly
determined by the charge transfer process, which is a fast
step. Therefore, the EN spectrum is mainly composed of
high-frequency signals. As a result, the wavelet energy of
the EN at high frequency is high.
Figure 10 shows a comparison of the cumulative probability
distribution of A7 obtained from EN for T91 and Q235B
probes during a 20-day exposure to an outdoor atmosphere.
The A7 energy of T91 is a little bit higher than the A7 energy
of Q235B. As mentioned above, localised corrosion usually
corresponds to passive film breakdown and repassivation,
this process always takes some time (i.e. 2–10 s). In addition,
the occurrence of localised corrosion always accompanies by
charge–discharge of the interface capacitance, which needs
more time than uniform corrosion. What reflected in the EN
spectrum is that the fluctuation frequency is lower than that
of uniform corrosion. As a result, the EN spectrum during
localised corrosion is mainly composed of low-frequency sig-
nals. In other words, the decomposed wavelet energy of T91
at low frequency A7 is higher than that of Q235B.
To verify the conclusions derived from wavelet analyses,
microscopic observation of the probe surfaces was carried
out. Figure 11 shows the morphology of T91 and Q235B
after exposure to an outdoor atmosphere for 20 days.
Q235B suffers from uniform corrosion, with a layer of com-
pact corrosion product formed on the surface of the steel. In
contrast, the corrosion on T91 is very localised, with some
corrosion pits formed on the surface of the steel. This indi-
cates that the corrosion forms of Q235B and T91 are totally
different, making wavelet energies D1 and A7 good indicators
of atmospheric corrosion form identification.
Correlation of the noise resistance and weight loss
data
In order to confirm the validity of the electrochemical data,
the integrating–averaging noise resistance Rn is compared
with weight loss data. Rn can be defined as

Rn · Dt
Rn =  , (6)
Dt
 CORROSION ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 439

Figure 11. Surface topography of the atmospheric corrosion probe after a 20-day exposure to an outdoor atmosphere; (a) Q235B and (b) T91.

where Rn is the noise resistance at the time of t, Dt is the data corrosion. The standard deviation of ECN and the noise
acquisition time and Dt is the total time. In this study, Dt resistance have direct relationships with the corrosion
= 10 and 20 days, because Rn of 10 and 20 days is needed. rate. As the exposure time is prolonged, the standard devi-
Correlation of the noise resistance and weight loss data is ation of the current noise decreases due to the formation
shown in Table 2. The weight loss data are converted to polar- of a rust layer.
isation resistance. The values of polarisation resistance and 3. The probability density distributions of EPN and ECN can
integrating–averaging noise resistance were in the same be used to illustrate a corrosion process visually. The prob-
order of magnitude, indicating that EN is effective for evalu- ability density distribution curves of EPN and ECN plots
ation of atmospheric corrosion. for Q235B steel became narrower as the atmospheric
In atmospheric conditions, the solution resistance may exposure time increased, but the probability density distri-
affect the calculation of noise resistance. However, the dis- bution curves of EPN and ECN plots for T91 steel showed
tance between the RE and WE is about 200 μm, and the sol- little change.
ution resistance has been estimated and found to be lower 4. Low-frequency and high-frequency wavelet energies can
than 1000 ohm [10]. Therefore, solution resistance can be be used to identify atmospheric corrosion form. The
negligent in calculation of noise resistance, because noise high-frequency energy D1 of Q235B steel was higher
resistance is usually 10 times higher than the solution than that of T91 steel, whereas the low-frequency energy
resistance. A7 of Q235B steel was lower than that of T91 steel.
5. Weight loss data obtained from 10 and 20 days correlate
well with the EN data, indicating that the EN can be
Conclusion used as an effective method to instantly evaluate the
atmospheric corrosion process.
In the present work, the atmospheric corrosions of Q235B
and T91 steels were monitored by atmospheric corrosion
probes, and the conclusions are summarised as follows:
Disclosure statement
1. This work implies that the atmospheric corrosion can be No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
successfully assessed by EN, and thus EN can be used as
a fast and economic method in atmospheric corrosion
detection. Funding
2. Standard deviations of EPN and ECN, and noise resist- The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Major
ance can be used as corrosion process indicators. Q235B State Basic Research Development Program (973 Program) (grant no.
2014CB046805), the National Natural Science Foundation of China
steel undergoes uniform corrosion in Tianjin urban
(nos. 51131007, 51671144), National Natural Science Foundation of
atmosphere whereas T91 steel suffers from localised China (51471117) and Key Project of Tianjin Natural Science Foun-
dation (13JCZDJC29500).
Table 2 Correlation of the noise resistance and weight loss data of Q235B and
T91.
ORCID
Data obtained from
Data obtained from weight loss electrochemical noise Da-Hai Xia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2336-8564
Corrosion Polarisation Integrating-averaging
Exposure current density resistance Rp noise resistance Rn
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