A practical method for determining pit depths using X-ray attenuation in EDX spectra

•A practical method is developed for the rapid determination of pit depth from X-ray microanalysis.•The method relies on attenuation of X rays passing through pit walls on the way to the X-ray detector.•The method is valuable for deep, narrow pits, which are inaccessible to the standard techniques.

A practical method has been developed for rapidly determining the depth of a corrosion micro-pit from the path lengths of X rays passing through the walls of the pit on their way to an X-ray detector. The method takes advantage of the attenuation of the Bremsstrahlung and characteristic X-ray radiation accompanying each X-ray spectrum, and the results are verified independently using AFM and the special pit geometry surrounding MnS inclusions in 1018 carbon steel. The method has general validity and is especially valuable in those cases where the pit depth-to-width ratio is too steep to measure using the conventional methods.

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