Design of sensitive corrosion potential sensor for underwater steel structure

Marine steel structures suffer severe corrosion during its long-term service. The traditional manual/remote operated vehicle detection methods have bottlenecks such as high cost, low accuracy and poorly real-time performance. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop long-term and precise corrosion monitoring technologies. This work presents a portable underwater corrosion potential detector. It integrates Ag/AgCl and high-purity zinc dual electrodes with an STM32 controller and OLED display for local acquisition, real-time display and microSD storage. The acrylic housing, sealed by flanges and silicone, withstands pressure and water ingress. Tests show that underwater corrosion potential detector is stable and accurate in seawater, reliably tracking the corrosion-potential evolution of Q235 carbon steel and 304SS across temperatures. The device offers an efficient, economical and sustainable solution for offshore corrosion monitoring with broad engineering prospects.