On the potential of acoustic emission for the characterization and understanding of mechanical damaging during abrasion-corrosion processes

Abrasion-corrosion may be a serious contributor to wear in industrial processes even when pure corrosion rate does not appear to be significant. This paper presents a study on the characterization by acoustic emission and electrochemical techniques of the abrasion-corrosion phenomenon of an austenitic 304L stainless steel. In single-impact conditions, it has been shown that acoustic energy is of a great interest in order to measure impact energy, whatever the impingement angle. Particles and air bubble impacts can also be clearly separated. In multi-impact conditions, it has been shown that acoustic energy could be taken as reference in order to quantify not only the overall energy of the impacts but also the mechanical damaging. Simultaneous time analyses of corrosion potential and acoustic energy have been performed and a good correlation of the instantaneous variations of these parameters has been evidenced. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.