Cathodic protection



  Cathodic protection (CP) is a technique to control the electrochemical cell.

It is a method used to protect metal structures from corrosion. Cathodic protection systems are most commonly used to protect steel, water/fuel pipelines and storage tanks; steel pier piles, ships, offshore oil platforms and onshore oil well casings.

A side effect of improperly performed cathodic protection may be production of molecular hydrogen embrittlement.

Cathodic protection is an effective method of preventing stress corrosion cracking.

Origins

The first use of CP was in 1824, when Sir rust) than copper and when connected to the hull, the corrosion rate of the copper was dramatically reduced.

Galvanic CP

Today, electrochemical potential, current capacity, and consumption rate of these alloys are superior for CP than iron.

Galvanic anodes are designed and selected to have a more "active" voltage (technically a more negative electrochemical potential) than the metal of the structure (typically anode to the cathode. The driving force for the CP current flow is the difference in electrochemical potential between the anode and the cathode.

Impressed Current CP

For larger structures, galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough current to provide complete protection. Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP) systems use anodes connected to a DC power source (a niobium coated wire and others.

  A typical ICCP system for a pipeline would include an AC powered rectifier with a maximum rated DC output of between 10 and 50 electrochemical potential.

Telephone wiring uses a form of cathodic protection. A circuit consists of a pair of wires, with forty-eight volts across them when the line is idle. The more positive wire is grounded, so that the wires are at 0 V and -48 V with respect to earth ground. The 0 V wire is at the same potential as the surrounding earth, so it corrodes no faster or slower than if it were not connected electrically. The -48 V wire is cathodically protected. This means that in the event of minor damage to the insulation on a buried cable, both copper conductors will be unaffected, and unless the two wires short together, service will not be interrupted.

If instead the polarity were switched, so that the wires were at 0 V and +48 V with respect to the surrounding earth, then the 0 V wire would be unaffected as before, but the +48 V wire would quickly be destroyed if it came into contact with wet earth. The electrochemical action would plate metal off the +48 V wire, reducing its thickness to the point that it would eventually break, interrupting telephone service. This choice of polarity was not accidental; corrosion problems in some of the earliest telegraphy systems pointed the way.

Testing

seawater applications.

Galvanized Steel

sacrificial anode.

Standards

  • EN 12068:1999 - Cathodic protection. External organic coatings for the corrosion protection of buried or immersed steel pipelines used in conjunction with cathodic protection. Tapes and shrinkable materials
  • EN 12473:2000 - General principles of cathodic protection in sea water
  • EN 12474:2001 - Cathodic protection for submarine pipelines
  • EN 12495:2000 - Cathodic protection for fixed steel offshore structures
  • EN 12499:2003 - Internal cathodic protection of metallic structures
  • EN 12696:2000 - Cathodic protection of steel in concrete
  • EN 12954:2001 - Cathodic protection of buried or immersed metallic structures. General principles and application for pipelines
  • EN 13173:2001 - Cathodic protection for steel offshore floating structures
  • EN 13174:2001 - Cathodic protection for harbour installations
  • EN 13509:2003 - Cathodic protection measurement techniques
  • EN 13636:2004 - Cathodic protection of buried metallic tanks and related piping
  • EN 14505:2005 - Cathodic protection of complex structures
  • EN 15112:2006 - External cathodic protection of well casing
  • EN 50162:2004 - Protection against corrosion by stray current from direct current systems
  • BS 7361-1:1991 - Cathodic Protection
  • NACE SP0169:2007 - Control of External Corrosion on Underground or Submerged Metallic Piping Systems
  • NACE TM 0497 - Measurement Techniques Related to Criteria for Cathodic Protection on Underground or Submerged Metallic Piping Systems
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cathodic_protection". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.