A critical overview of monitoring infrastructural health using corrosion probes

This paper presents a state-of-the-art view and some fundamental considerations on developing and utilising corrosion probes (or sensors) as sensing components in infrastructural health monitoring (IHM) systems. Practical cases are presented to illustrate major challenges and recent progresses in corrosion probe research, with particular focus on cases of addressing some critical challenges by designing corrosion probes based on electrochemically integrated multi-electrode arrays. It is shown that at present successful application of corrosion probes for IHM in complex and dynamic environmental conditions has been limited, and the validity of corrosion monitoring data is often left unexamined. It is suggested that major advancements have to be made in the probe design, installation, and data analytics in order to significantly enhance the effectiveness and reliability of corrosion probe application in IHM systems.