Smart Materials for Early Corrosion Sensing in Fibre Reinforced Plastics

Corrosion monitoring by radio-frequency identification will save resources and energy due to less unplanned and shorter planned shutdowns. Today, the only way of detecting corrosion problems is during downtime periods and often requires destructive testing of cut-outs.

A corrosion sensor integrated into polymeric materials for smart functions will allow early detection of corrosion and thus reduced precautionary maintenance. It will also allow for digitalisation of the plant maintenance and through this result in a much higher value for the end-user than an inspection.

Many of the environments in the Pulp and Paper and Chemical Processing Industries are extremely corrosive and have an urgent need to detect corrosion before catastrophic failures occur. Today, this is performed by on-site inspections when the customers require some more in-depth analysis of the corrosion status of the materials in use. An inspection requires a plant shutdown, a cut-out of a test piece and reconstruction of new fiber-reinforced plastics material. Finding a reliable, time- and cost-effective solution to detect corrosion in an early phase without shutdowns, through smart materials, will enable the transition toward digitalisation for these industries. In the proposed project, sensors, such as passive wireless radio-frequency identification will be studied as embedded corrosion indicators to create smart fibre reinforced plastics.