Non-Contact Acoustic Emission Monitoring of Corrosion under Marine Growth.

Offshore support structures and mooring systems are predominantly subject to corrosion and fatigue. These structures are typically covered with marine growth of various types. Conventional inspection methods for assessment of the structural integrity require access to the cleaned surface of these structures; however, the cleaning process is highly undesirable from the technical, economical, and environmental points of view.

Interactions between laponite and microbial biofilms in porous media: implications for colloid transport and biofilm stability.

Quartz sand columns and sand-filled microscope flow cells were used to investigate the transport characteristics of the clay colloid laponite, and a biofilm-forming bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa SG81. Separate experiments were performed with each particle to determine their individual transport characteristics in clean sand columns. In a second set of experiments, bacterial biofilms were formed prior to introduction of the clay colloids.