2. Atmospheric corrosion monitoring methods

Among monitoring methods, a distinction must be made between those used in the field to estimate the service life of a structure subjected to atmospheric corrosion, and those carried out in the laboratory to specify a corrosion mechanism under well-defined conditions and gain a fundamental understanding of the nature of interactions between a metal and its environment. Finally, so-called "accelerated corrosion" methods, widely used in certain sectors of industry, are designed to simulate atmospheric corrosion by exposing metal samples to a more corrosive atmosphere than that of actual exposure, with the aim of accelerating damage and thus reducing test duration.