Novel optimization technique to determine polarization characteristics of a corroding metal

Abstract

Polarization data characterize the corrosion behavior of a metal giving a quick estimate of corrosion current density icorr and corrosion potential Ecorr. These two characteristics determine the corrosion rate and position of the metal in galvanic series. The chosen system for the study is steel (SS304) in NaCl solution. In these studies, icorr and Ecorr of Butler-Volmer equation are obtained by fitting the full expression to experimental current vs potential data unlike the graphical method using Tafelslopes. MATLAB optimization tool box is utilized for this purpose. The novel optimization technique is explained for determining Ecorr and icorr