Effect of Sulfuric Acid Concentration on Acoustic Emission Signals in Uniform-Corrosion

In petroleum industry, corrosion failures of steel structures are common. The severity of corrosion in oil distillery inorganic compounds is higher than in those of organic compounds. Inorganic compounds such as sulfur are the most influential corrosive activators inside oil or chemical storage tanks. They normally have the tanks inspected and repaired along their life time. In addition the concentration of sulfur compound increases due to the accumulation of the residuals inside the tank, and so does the corrosive rate. In this paper, Acoustic Emission (AE) has been chosen to study the characteristic of AE signals received from the uniform corrosion mechanism of mild steel (A36) in various concentrations of Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) solution. AE signals were captured using a wide band sensor (WD) and recorded by AE system model LOCAN 320. The relationship between AE signals and sulfur concentrations as well as pH were exhibited.