Mapping the knowledge domains of research on corrosion of petrochemical equipment: An informetrics analysis-based study

Corrosion of petrochemical equipment is one of the reasons that affect the process safety and sustainability of the petrochemical industry. To understand the research status of corrosion in petrochemical equipment and explore the knowledge base and hot trends, 1887 studies from 2000 to 2020 on the WOS retrieval platforms SCIE, SSCI, A & HCI and CPCI-S were used as data samples. Co-occurrence analysis, keyword mutation analysis, and co-citation analysis were used to analyze the current status of petrochemical equipment corrosion research using the method of informetrics. The number of papers published in China ranks first among countries/regions, and the Universidade de Lisboa ranks first among relevant institutions. Corrosion resistance structure analysis, corrosion loss model analysis and steel structure corrosion analysis are the basis of knowledge in the field of petrochemical equipment corrosion research, and scholars mostly take oil tankers as the object of analysis. Engineering Failure Analysis, Marine Structure, Ocean Engineering, Corrosion Science and Corrosion are the core journals in this field. At present, the basic theory and research systems in the field of petrochemical equipment corrosion have been largely completed, and many research directions and broad frontier branches are currently emerging. "Research on corrosion mechanism and anti-corrosion mechanism", "microbial corrosion research" and "corrosion detection and monitoring research" are the three core development paths in this field. In the process of evolution, the research path is gradually becoming refined, and research directions are gradually changing to nano anti-corrosion materials. Simulation, biofuels and composites are the new research frontiers of research on corrosion of petrochemical equipment.