Predicting Corrosion Rates with the Potentiostat

Most corrosion processes are electrochemical in nature, and in recent years increasing emphasis has been placed on electrochemical test methods. This report describes a new technique for using potentiostatically determined polarization curves which fulfills the requirements of a rapid electrochemical corrosion test. The test method makes use of the recently developed rapid-scan potentiodynamic technique to produce a series of polarization curves that describe an alloy's corrosion characteristics in the test environment. The method has yielded calculated corrosion rates that correspond to rates obtained from conventional long-term immersion tests.