An electrode array probe regulated closed-loop cathodic protection technology for mitigating localized corrosion of pipelines

Paper ID: C2025-00146 ABSTRACT: Localised corrosion remains a critical and tenacious threat to the integrity of the huge network of civil and industrial infrastructure assets exposed to complex and varying environments. It is evident by many publicly reported catastrophic engineering structure failures and an enormous amount of unreported infrastructure incidents occurring on engineering structures including underground oil and gas pipelines and offshore energy infrastructures. This paper reports a new approach to controlling localized corrosion by a new electrode array probe regulated closed-loop cathodic protection technology. Over the past 2-3 years, a prototype of the technology has been tested at gas pipeline sites in Australia for mitigating a serious pipeline localised corrosion problem namely corrosion under disbonded coatings (CUDC), which has been identified as the most common and crucial form of localised corrosion frequently occurring on steel pipelines around the world. Results from field testing of the working prototypes have demenstrated the function and effectiveness of the technology in mitigating localized corrosion through remote closed-loop control under varying rainfall and corrosion conditions over the period. (References: M.Y.J Tan, Localised Corrosion in Complex Environments, John Wiley & Sons Inc., USA, 2023; M Tan, B Varela, pending patent, WO2023235920 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CORROSION PROTECTION (wipo.int))