DESIGN ASPECTS OF ELECTROCHEMICAL NOISE MEASUREMENTS FOR UNCOATED METALS - ELECTRODE SIZE AND SAMPLING RATE

Observed and simulated electrochemical noise (EN) from general and loc alized corrosion on uncoated metals was used to test theoretical conce pts regarding the relation of electrode area and corrosion rate to noi se. Electrode area influences noise resistance, which emphasized the i mportance of the choice of electrode area in design of noise measureme nts. The possibility of obtaining mechanistic information by spectral analysis does not appear promising. Direct inspection of time-domain d ata may be more useful than statistical or spectral analysis to obtain mechanistic information Direct inspection could be facilitated using a large area ratio between the electrodes of the electrochemical curre nt noise probe, Simulated and measured noise indicated a sampling rate of I Hz may be too low in some instances.