Corrosion of steel harbour infrastructure is governed by a steep vertical gradient in exposure conditions, yet the datasets needed to model that gradient quantitatively remain scarce and poorly harmonised across European basins. This thesis addresses that gap by replicating, at a Belgian coastal site, a marine corrosion monitoring experiment of the type operated at the CoaST Maritime Test Centre, and by delivering the resulting data to the CORRASBlue project (Coastal Corrosion Risk Management through Digital twin model for a Sustainable Blue Economy), where such field data feed the work package on data collection and integration.

The student will install an instrumented panel array spanning five elevations relative to the waterline (+0.25 m, 0.00 m, -0.25 m, -0.50 m, and -0.75 m), carrying electrical resistance (ER) corrosion probes, weight-loss coupons, Ag/AgCl reference electrodes, and a four-point Wenner resistivity sensor. Duplicate panels allow a direct comparison of freely corroding (native) steel with steel under galvanic cathodic protection. Continuous logging will yield corrosion rate, free corrosion potential, spread resistance, and temperature, complemented by seawater chemistry and local weather data. At fixed intervals, biofilm will be sampled from probe and coupon surfaces for 16S rRNA marker gene analysis, so that the electrochemical record can be related to the microbial community developing at each elevation.

The expected outcome is a curated, quality-controlled dataset of depth-resolved corrosion rates with paired environmental and microbiological metadata, formatted for direct ingestion by the CORRASBlue digital twin, together with a critical evaluation of the measurement uncertainties involved.