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THE STUDY OF PIPELINE LOCALIZED

CORROSION USING A NOVEL DESIGNED
ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE SENSOR ARRAY
Yesen Zhu1, Yi Huang1,*, Yunze Xu1, Xiaona Wang2 & Shide Song3
1School of Naval Architecture

Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning Province, China

2School of Physics

Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning Province, China

3School of Civil Engineering

Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning Province, China

SUMMARY: In this paper, a new method has been proposed to study the localized corrosion of
the pipeline based on the multiple ring pair electrical resistance sensor (RPERS) array. The
modified rings array arranged multiple sets of ring pairs along the flow direction to simulate the
corrosion behaviour of a real energy pipe. RPERS array can provide more comprehensive
information on pipeline corrosion. Based on the new sensor system, the corrosion propagation
of base metal (BM), heat affected zone (HAZ) and weld metal (WM) in elbow-to-pipe weldment,
was on-line monitored. The surface characterization was conducted to observe the surface
morphology and the compositions of the corrosion scales. The scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) images show that the dense and protective film formed at 60℃ in the brine solution with
a pH of 6.6. The corrosion depth measurement results indicate the corrosion process in
different areas of weldment was different.

Keywords: RPERS array, pipeline, weldment, corrosion film.

1. INTRODUCTION
The electrical resistance (ER) sensor technique, also known as electrical coupon technique, has become one of the
most important methods for the monitoring of pipeline internal corrosion1. As a result of the corrosion, the cross-
section area of the sensor will reduce, leading to an increase of the electrical resistance. Based on the change of
the resistance, the corrosion loss in metal thickness can be obtained and the slope of the metal loss curve directly
corresponds to the corrosion rate. In contrast to conventional electrochemical techniques such as the linear
polarization resistance and the electrochemical impendence spectroscopy methods, the advantage of the ER
technique on metal loss measurement is that the presence of an electrolyte layer on the metal surface is not
inevitable. In that sense, the method can be used in a high resistance medium such as gas and crude oil. Moreover,
it can be used for corrosion monitoring of high temperature corrosion and erosion corrosion2,3.
The traditional ER sensors are almost entirely composed by a corrosion element and a compensation element 4,5.
The geometry shapes of the elements are usually present in the forms of wire, tube, flush spiral and strip. Thus, the
metal loss of the corrosion element can be calculated according to its geometric dimensioning. It is reported in
previous studies that the flow distribution and sand concentration are not uniform in the pipeline6,7. Different
monitoring data might be obtained when the probes are placed at different locations. Therefore, some modified ER
sensors are provided for the monitoring of non-uniform corrosion in pipeline8,9.
An advanced ER method which is defined as ring pair electrical resistance sensor (RPERS) has been recently
developed to on-line monitor localized corrosion around pipeline circle9. The sliced rings cutting from the original
pipeline which needs to be monitored are used as the probes. RPERS is designed to divide the sliced rings into
small segments and the local resistance change of each segment can be measured through several constant
exciting currents. As the ring is an electrical integrated part, the electrons can freely move through each segment
and the galvanic corrosion among the segments can be considered to simulate a more realistic condition. On the

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basis of its unique design and the high resolution of the metal loss, it has been well used to monitor the top of line
corrosion and the under-deposit corrosion in recent lab tests10,11.
Array probe technique, a configuration of multi-probe system, could be used to investigate the different corrosion
behaviour at different locations12,13. In this work, a multi RPERS array is optimized. RPERS array not only can
monitor the circumferential corrosion depth of the pipe, but also can monitor the corrosion depth along the flow
direction. RPERS array was used to study the corrosion behaviour of the elbow-to-pipe weldments in a six-inch flow
loop as a case study. Utilizing the individual property of each ring pair, the different zones of the pipeline weldment
(BM, HAZ and WM) are divided into three groups of ring pairs. The three groups of the ring pair probes were
arranged in an array and they were mounted at the elbow-to-pipe area in the flow loop. The localized corrosion
behaviour of each zone at the weldment in the CO2 containing brine solution was on-line monitored.

2. THE CONSTRUCTION AND MEASUREMENT PRINCIPLE OF RPERS ARRAY

RPERS was used to monitor circumferential corrosion at a single location10,11. While, the novel RPERS array
expands into pairs of rings and can monitor circumferential corrosion at multiple consecutive locations. As shown in
Figure 1a, RPERS array is used as an integrated part of the pipeline which needs to be monitored. All ring pairs are
fastened by screws and RPERS array can be connected to pipeline through flanges. For a single ring pair, two rings
are made with one ring acted as corrosion ring (CR) and one ring acted as temperature compensation ring (TCR). It
is seen from Fig. 1b that TCR is completely coated by chromic oxide (Cr2O3) through plasma spraying to protect it
from any corrosion. While, only the outer surface and the side surface of CR are coated with a Cr2O3 layer. The
inner surface of CR is kept bare which can directly sense the corrosion. The two kinds of rings are embedded in the
pipeline through a connection ring by a special mechanical structure to enhance structural strength. The rings are
insulated from each other through the Cr2O3 coating on the contact surfaces. The arrangement of the ring pairs in
the pipeline is shown in Figure 2a.
For localized corrosion monitoring, each ring is divided into six segments using electrodes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11, as
shown in Figure 2b. Segment 1 is between electrodes 1 and 3, Segment 2 is between electrodes 3 and 5 and the
other segments are dealt with the same approach. These electrodes are also used for voltage measurements. The
CR
resistance values of the segments on the corrosion ring are represented by Ri (i = 1, 2, 3, . . ., 6), respectively.
TCR
The resistance values of the segments on the temperature compensation ring are represented by Ri (i = 1, 2, 3,
. . ., 6), respectively.

Figure 1 The structure of RPERS array (a) three-dimension views of the mechanical structure of RPERS array,
(b) dimensioning figure of corrosion and compensation rings

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Figure 2 (a) The arrangement of the ring pairs, (b) the measurement principle diagram of RPERS with three
excitation currents injected from different directions
The measurement principle of RPERS array according to the new geometrical parameter is roughly described as
following. Three excitation currents I1, I2 and I3 are successively injected into one ring pair through the even-
numbered electrodes, as shown in Figure 2b. Because the two rings are in series and completely symmetric, the
measurement processes of the two rings are quite the same. Firstly, when I1 is injected as the red path, the
potential differences between electrodes 1 and 3, 3 and 5, 9 and 7, 11 and 9 are respectively measured as the
voltages of Segments 1, 2, 4 and 5 on the CR and TCR. Through the measurement results, the resistance ratios
 CR1 ,  TCR1 (  CR1(TCR1) ) and  CR 2 ,  TCR 2 (  CR 2(TCR 2) ) can be expressed as:
CR(TCR )
R1 ( ) V1,3( I 1)
CR TCR
 CR1(TCR1) = CR(TCR ) = CR(TCR ) (1)
R2 V3,5( I 1)
CR(TCR )
R4 ( ) V9,7( I 1)
CR TCR
 CR 2(TCR 2) = CR(TCR ) = CR(TCR ) (2)
R5 V11,9( I 1)

where  CR1(TCR1) represent the resistance ratios between Segments 1 and 2 of the two rings, and  CR 2(TCR 2)
CR (TCR ) CR (TCR ) CR (TCR )
represent the resistance ratios between Segments 4 and 5 of the two rings. V1,3( I 1) , V3,5( I 1) , V9,7( I 1) and
CR (TCR )
V11,9 ( I 1) , respectively represent the voltage measurement results of Segments 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the two rings when
I1 is passing through.
Then, when I2 is injected into the ring pair as the green path shown in Figure 2b, the voltage values of Segments 1,
3, 4 and 6 can be measured successively using the same steps as I2 is passing through. The resistance ratios
 CR3 ,  TCR 3 (  CR3(TCR 3) ) and  CR 4 ,  TCR 4 (  CR 4(TCR 4) ) can be expressed as:
CR(TCR )
R6 ( ) V11,1( I 2)
CR TCR
 CR3(TCR3) = CR(TCR ) = CR(TCR ) (3)
R1 V1,3( I 2)
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CR(TCR )
R4 ( ) V9,7( I 2)
CR TCR
 CR 4(TCR 4) = CR(TCR ) = CR(TCR ) (4)
R3 V7,5( I 2)

where  CR3(TCR3) represent the resistance ratios between Segments 6 and 1 of the two rings, and  CR 4(TCR 4)
CR (TCR ) CR (TCR ) CR (TCR )
represents the resistance ratios between Segments 4 and 3 of the two rings. V1,3( I 2 ) , V7,5( I 2 ) , V9,7( I 2 ) and
CR (TCR )
V11,1( I 2 ) , respectively represent the voltages of Segments 1, 3, 4 and 6 of the two rings when I2 is passing through.

Finally, when I3 is injected as the purple path shown in Figure 2b, the voltage values of Segments 2 and 3 can also
be measured and the resistance ratios  CR 5 ,  TCR 5 (  CR 5(TCR 5) ) can be expressed as:

CR(TCR )
R3 ( ) V7,5( I 3)
CR TCR
 CR 5(TCR 5) = CR(TCR ) = CR(TCR ) (5)
R2 V5,3( I 3)
CR (TCR )
where  CR5(TCR5) represent the resistance ratios between Segments 3 and 2 of the two rings, and V5,3( I 3) and
CR (TCR )
V7,5 ( I 3) respectively represent the voltages of Segments 2 and 3 of the two rings when I3 is passing through.

Because the two rings are in series, the current passing through the corrosion ring is equal to that passing through
the compensation ring. Thus when I1 is passing through, Eqn. (6) can be written as:

V1,3CR( I 1) CR
V11,9 ( I 1) V1,3TCR
( I 1)
TCR
V11,9 ( I 1)
+ = + = I1 (6)
R1CR R5CR R1TCR R5TCR
Combining Eqns. (1) – (6), Eqn. (7) can be obtained:

( I 1)   CR 2   CR1 / (  CR 4   CR 5 )
 V1,3CR( I 1) + V11,9
TCR

 TCR i =1
V1,3( I 1) + V11,9( I 1)   TCR 2   TCR1 / ( TCR 4   TCR 5 )
TCR


  TCR1
k i=2
  CR1 1

  CR 5   TCR1
k1 i=3
RiCR    
ki = TCR = TCR 5 CR1 (7)
Ri     CR 5  TCR1


CR 4
k i=4
 TCR 4   TCR 5   CR1 1

  CR 4   CR 5   TCR 2   TCR1
 k1 i=5
  CR 2   CR 1   TCR 4   TCR 5

  CR 3
 k i=6
  TCR 3 1
where i = 1, 2, 3, . . ., 6, ki is the resistance ratio between the corresponding segments of the corrosion and
. As ki is obtained, the metal loss ( hi )
CR TCR
compensation rings, and k1 is the resistance ratio between R1 and R1
of each segment calculated according to the geometric dimension of the ring can be expressed as:

 ac  k 
0
hi =  + h  1 − i  (8)
 b   ki 
where ki0 (i = 1, 2, …, 6) are the initial resistance ratios of the CR and TCR before the corrosion test, and a, b, c and
h represent the section size of the CR as shown in Figure 1b.

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3. CASE STUDY: THE MONITORING OF LOCALIZED CORROSION OF PIPELINE WELDMENTS USING

RPERS ARRAY
Localized corrosion of API X65 pipeline weldment was monitored by the novel RPERS array. As shown in Figure
3a, three distinct zones of weldment (BM, HAZ, WM) can be observed. All the three zones were processed into
corrosion rings and temperature compensation rings, respectively. The three ring pairs were assembled to form
RPERS array of weldment as shown in Figure 3b. RPERS array was installed in the circulating flow loop for
corrosion monitoring as shown in Figure 3c. A 3.5wt % brine solution deaerated with a continuous CO2 gas flow
purging was prepared. The pH of the solution was controlled at 6.6 through addition of sodium bicarbonate. The test
temperature was selected as 30℃, 40℃, 50℃, 60℃ and 70℃, respectively. The flow rate of the system was kept at
a value of 0.5 (m s−1). During the test, lower five segments were immersed in the solution, and the entire experiment
was lasted for 650 h. After the 650 h of testing, the corroded samples were cut from corrosion rings. The
morphology characteristics of the corrosion product layers were conducted by SEM. The elemental chemical
compositions of the representative surface products were identified by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).

Figure 3 (a) Macro photo of pipe weldment, (b) RPERS array of weldment, (c) the flow loop

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 The measurement results of the corrosion depths using RPERS array
Figure 4 shows the corrosion behaviour of the segments were quite different. The corrosion depths of the different
segments of BM are shown in Figure 4a. At the beginning of the test, the bottom three segments had the highest
corrosion depths indicating serious corrosion of the pipeline bottom area. After the temperature increased to 50℃,
obvious differences of the corrosion depths appeared among the bottom three segments. Segment 2 had faster
corrosion rate than those of Segment 3 and Segment 4. After the test conducted for nearly 450 h, the corrosion
depth of Segment 2 was the highest around all the six segments. When the temperature reached 60℃, the
corrosion rates of Segments 1 to 5 all began to decrease, which was related to the production of FeCO 3 product
films on the steel surface that would inhibit corrosion. However, the corrosion depth of Segment 6 had a slight
increase with the temperature rising which suggests that the top of line corrosion was induced by the condensation
of the droplet on the top of the pipe when the fluid temperature was above 60 ℃. The final corrosion depths of
Segments 1 to 6 were 81.59 μm, 109.48 μm, 96.55 μm, 95.65 μm, 86.84 μm and 15.74 μm, respectively.
Figure 4b shows the corrosion depths of HAZ. Before the temperature climbed to 60℃, the corrosion rates of all
segments except the top segment increased with the temperature increasing. Similar to the corrosion behaviour of
BM, the bottom three segments of HAZ also had the higher corrosion depths. However, the maximum corrosion
depth happened on Segment 3 of HAZ rather than Segment 2 of BM. After the temperature reached 60℃, the
slopes of all the curves became flatten indicating that the corrosion of Segments 1 to 5 all slowed down due to the
presence of FeCO3 product film. The final corrosion depths of Segments 1 to 6 were 86.38 μm, 99.93 μm, 104.78
μm, 99.73 μm, 80.46 μm and 12.09 μm, respectively.
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The corrosion behaviour of WM was same with BM and HAZ. The corrosion rates of the bottom five segments
increased with the temperature increasing from 30 ℃ to 50 ℃ and the corrosion rates gradually decreased with the
temperature further increased to 60 ℃ as shown in Figure 4c. The corrosion depth of Segment 3 was the highest
among the six segments. The corrosion depths of the symmetric Segment 2 and 4 were almost the same. Different
from the measurement results of BM and HAZ, Segment 5 had faster corrosion rate than Segment 1 on WM. The
final corrosion depths of Segments 1 to 6 were 73.71 μm, 99.47 μm, 117.89 μm, 99.89 μm, 83.09 μm and 12.90
μm, respectively.
Since only five segments of a single ring were submerged into the solution, the average corrosion depths of the
immersed five segments were calculated and depicted in Figure 4d. It is seen from Figure 4d that the average
corrosion rates of all three corrosion rings increased with the temperature increasing before the 60℃. However,
after the fluid temperature reached 60℃, the average corrosion rates of all corrosion rings began to decrease. It can
be seen that the decreasing of the average corrosion rate on WM was one day delayed than those of BM and HAZ,
which could be related to the inhibition effect of the acicular ferrite and the widmanstatten ferrite in WM to generate
a dense FeCO3 layer14,15.

Figure 4 (a) the corrosion depth curves of BM, (b) the corrosion depth curves of HAZ, (c) the corrosion depth
curves of WM, (d) the average corrosion depth curves of the immersed five segments

4.2 The characterization of the surface morphology and the corrosion product
The SEM images on the corrosion rings are shown in Figure 5. Types and proportions of corrosion products
covered on the corrosion rings are listed in Table 1. It can be seen that all the surfaces had a layer of corrosion
product film and the corrosion products mainly consisted of FeCO3 and CaCO3. The presence of CaCO3 was due to
a certain amount of Ca2+ in the tap water. It can be seen from Figure 5c that the film was not uniform on WM
surfaces and there was no FeCO3 crystal covering in certain region.

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Figure 5 The SEM images of corrosion product layer (a) BM, (b) HAZ, (c) WM
Table 1. Types and proportions of corrosion products
Types FeCO3(%) CaCO3(%)
1 73.4 26.6
2 64.3 35.7

5. CONCLUSIONS
Through the introduction of RPERS array and the localized corrosion monitoring results of the weldment, several
conclusions can be drawn:
1. Obvious localized corrosion of weldment can be seen through the SEM images. Film formation on WM area is
slower which could lead to more severe corrosion of WM. In addition, the top of the line corrosion germinates at
the high temperature.
2. The novel RPERS array shows a wider application range. By utilizing this multiple ring pair structure form,
localized corrosion of the special structures composed by different materials can be effectively monitored.

6. REFERENCES
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7. AUTHOR DETAILS
Yesen Zhu is a PhD Student in the School of Naval Architecture at Dalian
University of Technology. He received his bachelor degree in marine
engineering in 2015 from Dalian University of Technology. Now, he is
working on the corrosion of the weldment issue under the guidance of Prof.
Yi Huang.

Yi Huang is a professor in School of Naval Architecture at Dalian University

of Technology. He obtained his PhD from Hiroshima University of Japan in
September 1992. From 1992 to 2001, he worked at Hiroshima University on
studies of corrosion and anticorrosion problems for ship and ocean
engineering. Then he was invited to Dalian University of Technology and
managed a group working on the safety technology of marine structures
over the entire lifetime, the strength analysis and the dynamic response
characteristics of marine structures, key technologies for the design and
installation of deep-sea risers and new conceptual marine structures.

Yunze Xu is an exchange PhD Student in the Institute for Frontier Materials

at Deakin University. He graduated from Huazhong University of Science
and Technology in 2012 and then, he becomes a PhD student in Dalian
University of Technology. Now, he is working on the erosion corrosion issue
of the energy pipelines under the guidance of Prof. Mike Yongjun Tan. His
project attempts to develop a new kind of erosion corrosion senor which
can probe the detailed information of the localized corrosion caused by
erosion-corrosion.

Xiaona Wang is a senior engineer in School of Physics at Dalian University

of Technology. She received her PhD from Dalian University of Technology
in March 2008. Her research area focuses on the photoelectric detection
and the application of optical fiber sensor in oil and gas industry.

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Shide Song is a lecturer in School of Civil Engineering at Dalian University

of Technology. He obtained his PhD from Dalian University of Technology in
2006. He is working on optical fiber sensor and its application in civil
engineering. He is also working on corrosion and anticorrosion problems for
ship and ocean engineering.

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