On the potential of acoustic emission for the characterization and understanding of mechanical damaging during abrasion-corrosion processes

Abrasion-corrosion may be a serious contributor to wear in industrial proce sses even when pure corrosion rate does not appear to be significant. This paper presents a study on the characterization by acoustic emission and ele ctrochemical techniques of the abrasion-corrosion phenomenon of an austenit ic 304L stainless steel. In single-impact conditions, it has been shown tha t acoustic energy is of a great interest in order to measure impact energy, whatever the impingement angle. Particles and air bubble impacts can also be clearly separated. In multi-impact conditions, it has been shown that ac oustic energy could be taken as reference in order to quantify not only the overall energy of the impacts but also the mechanical damaging. Simultaneo us time analyses of corrosion potential and acoustic energy have been perfo rmed and a good correlation of the instantaneous variations of these parame ters has been evidenced. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved .