Optical fiber corrosion sensor based on laser light reflection

The development of an optical fiber corrosion sensor based on the principle of light reflection is presented in this paper. The sensor consists of an optical fiber reflection sensor and a tube/film subassembly formed by welding a sacrificial metallic film to a steel tube. One side of the sacrificial metallic film is finely polished and is isolated from the environment while the other side is exposed to the corrosive environment. The corrosion pits initiated at the exposed film surface slowly penetrate the sacrificial film as the exposure time increases. The corrosion pits that reach the polished surface reduce the surface reflectivity of the polished surface. This decrease in reflectivity is detected by the optical fiber reflectivity sensor. To interrogate multiple sensors at one time, a sensor multiplexing scheme was implemented. The principles of operation, packaging, and characterization of the corrosion sensors are presented.

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