Corrosion Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring of Oil and Natural Gas Infrastructure: A Review

Abstract

Corrosion has been a great concern in the oil and natural gas industry costing billions of dollars annually in the U.S. The ability to monitor corrosion online before structural integrity is compromised can have a significant impact on preventing catastrophic events resulting from corrosion. This article critically reviews conventional corrosion sensors and emerging sensor technologies in terms of sensing principles, sensor designs, advantages, and limitations. Conventional corrosion sensors encompass corrosion coupons, electrical resistance probes, electrochemical sensors, ultrasonic testing sensors, magnetic flux leakage sensors, electromagnetic sensors, and in-line inspection tools. Emerging sensor technologies highlight optical fiber sensors (point, quasi-distributed, distributed) and passive wireless sensors such as passive radio-frequency identification sensors and surface acoustic wave sensors. Emerging sensors show great potential in continuous real-time in-situ monitoring of oil and natural gas infrastructure. Distributed chemical sensing is emphasized based on recent studies as a promising method to detect early corrosion onset and monitor corrosive environments for corrosion mitigation management. Additionally, challenges are discussed including durability and stability in extreme and harsh conditions such as high temperature high pressure in subsurface wellbores.

Frontiers and Challenges in Electrochemical Corrosion Monitoring; Surface and Downhole Applications

“…Therefore, widely used electrochemical techniques for corrosion sensing are LPR, Potentiodynamic Polarization (PDP), Open Circuit Potential (OCP), Electrochemical Noise (EN) technique, EIS, Harmonic Distortion Analysis (HDA), Potentiometric, Amperometry measurements and so forth. The corrosion sensor based on LPR are commercially available from Rohrback Cosasco Systems [ 10 ]. The principle of some of the methods is given below.…”

“…Currently, there are several options in the market that monitor corrosion in flow lines and pipelines. As an example, (i) corrosion coupon (ii) electrical resistance probe, (iii) electrochemical sensors and (iv) ultrasonic testing sensor are available from (i) Rohrback Cosasco Systems, (ii) Metal Samples Company, (iii) Rohrback Cosasco Systems/Corr Instruments, LLC and (iv) NDT Global LLC, respectively [ 10 ]. Information regarding the nature and amount of corrosives present continuously is either not or scantily available through fluid sampling and laboratory analysis [ 11 , 12 ].…”

Research on the magnetic flux leakage field distribution characteristics of defect in low-frequency electromagnetic detection technique

“…It is clear that the use of the unsaturated AC excitation method in LFET [8,9,10,11] inevitably results in a weakened LF-MFL field at defects in the surface of inspected materials. An inductive magnetic coil [12,13,14,15,16] (LFET coil) is typically used as a substitute for traditional magnetic sensitive component [17,18] to avoid disturbances from the external DC magnetic field, reflecting the tangential magnetic variation. Meanwhile, the highsensitivity magnetoresistive (MR) sensor is always adopted as the signal acquisition medium [19,20,21], although it is affected greatly by spatial magnetic field.…”

Sensor Development for Corrosion Monitoring of Stainless Steels in H2SO4 Solutions

“…An electrical resistance (ER) sensor is a corrosion monitoring technique which utilizes the change in the electrical resistance of a corroding metal electrode to measure its reduction in thickness [ 13 ]. As the metal corrodes, the cross-section of the electrode decreases, causing a proportional increase in electrical resistance.…”

“…As the metal corrodes, the cross-section of the electrode decreases, causing a proportional increase in electrical resistance. ER sensors are one of the most common corrosion monitoring techniques used in different fields, including in the construction industry [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], the oil and gas industry [ 13 , 19 , 20 ], the automotive sector [ 21 ], in nuclear waste management [ 22 , 23 , 24 ] and in other, general applications [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Despite their popularity, however, they have not been widely applied in the hydrometallurgical industry.…”