Rod-type metal corrosion probes based on electromechanical impedance (EMI) technique can quantitatively assess the amount of corrosion, which have a promising application in pipeline corrosion monitoring and have received more and more attention. In the design of piezoelectric smart devices, electrical series and parallel connections are very important and effective adjust method to improve the device performance, but it is yet to be used in the probe design. In this work, a kind of novel metal corrosion probe with two piezoelectric elements in series and parallel connections was proposed, and its performance was investigated comprehensively by combining theoretical analysis with experiment research. Theoretical models of the proposed probe in the longitudinal vibration mode for both series and parallel connections were established, and verified by the experimental results. Influences of the thicknesses of piezoelectric layer and ceramic layer on the probe performance were analyzed. Artificial quantitative corrosion tests and accelerated corrosion tests were designed to evaluate the quantitative corrosion monitoring capacity. Temperature sensitivity tests were conducted to study the temperature dependence. The wireless impedance measurement was performed to confirm the online monitoring ability. Comparisons for the probe performance between the series and parallel connections were also presented. This work provided a comprehensive understanding for this kind of novel probe, which is beneficial to develop low-cost, high-precision, high-stability pipeline corrosion real-time monitoring technology.
