Measuring the Effect of Cathodic Protection on the Performance of Thermally Sprayed Aluminium Coatings at Elevated Temperature
Status: Completed
Date Announced: February, 2013
Project reference: 24323
Thermally sprayed aluminium (TSA) coatings are increasingly used to mitigate the corrosion on subsea pipelines and structures. However, there is limited published data covering the interaction of TSA and Cathodic Protection (CP), besides the results of work published in the early 1990s relating to the effect of various levels of CP at ambient North Atlantic seawater temperatures, when applied to hot and thermally-cycled risers, as well as hydrocarbon transportation.
To address these issues, this project has used quantitative methods to measure current coating demand under selected CP values, as well as to measure both potential and corrosion rate at Ecorr during long-term testing facing an elevated temperature and throughout thermal cycling. With many new fields emerging involving installation of increasingly difficult-to-maintain and remote deep-water facilities, paired with the extraction of hotter hydrocarbons, the generation of this data has provided both oil producers and installation companies with increased confidence in the long-term reliability of TSA coatings in subsea service. Implications of the project results for cathodic protection design codes and standards have also been reported.
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