Numerical Analysis of Potential Distribution in Structures under Cathodic Protection : Application of Two-dimentional Boundary Element Method

Abstract

The cathodic protection is an effective anticorrosion technique for marine structures blow the water line. Therefore, it is important that the potential distributions around structures are made clear in process of structural design. In conventional methods for numerical analysis of the potential distribution in a corrosion cell, the iterative technique has been applied. In this report, a more convenient numerical method to analyse the potential distribution under the cathodic protection is proposed for the purpose of a rational anticorrosion design. In this method, the potential distribution can be obtained by the application of BEM without iterative tecnique, on the assumption that polarisation characteristics of electrodes in eletrolyte are linear.