Fiber-optic sensor for the estimation of microbial corrosion of metals

This paper presents an optical approach to estimate the degree of corrosion of metals by measuring the changes in surface texture. The principle behind this method is based on scattering of light by objects. Source fiber is used to focus the light on the biocorroded metal surface. The resultant scattered and reflected light intensities are measured individually using detector fibers placed at different angles. The degree of corrosion is estimated as a ratio of scattered and reflected light intensities of specimen surface in a relative scale from 0 to 100. The observed optical measurements correlate well with the measured corrosion rate (correlation coefficient (R2)=0.972). A consistent relationship is found between optical measurements and corrosion levels.