Simulation of Electrochemical Processes 3

Computer simulation of the interference

between a ship’s and a dock’s cathodic
protection systems
E. Santana-Diaz & R. Adey
Computational Mechanics BEASY, UK

Abstract
Paint and impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) systems are used to
control corrosion on many different types of structures. Since cathodic protection
(CP) systems were first applied, engineers have used experience and intensive
monitoring to optimise their design to prevent corrosion. Numerical methods and
in particular Boundary Elements Methods (BEM) have been widely used in the
cathodic protection field to simulate the performance of the CP system and to
predict the associated electric and magnetic fields.
Special care must be taken when a new structure is commissioned as
additional stray currents could alter the performance of existing CP systems. In
this work, the influence of the cathodic protection system of a ship on a dock is
predicted using computer modelling. The damage that the cathodic protection
system of the ship could cause to the structure is highlighted and possible
mitigation measures assessed using the optimisation features of the modelling
software.
The data requirements and practical application of computer modelling is
discussed and other possible applications highlighted.

1 Introduction
Boundary Element Methods (BEM) have been used to simulate the behaviour of
cathodic protection systems since the late 70’s [1]. As the name implies, the
method requires elements to be created, but only on the boundary (or surfaces) of
the problem geometry.
The advantages of boundary elements for CP analysis are many, for instance:
- The meshes are only on the surface, hence only surface elements are
required. Mesh generators can be used with confidence, and models can be
constructed extremely quickly and inexpensively.

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- BE gives the solutions on the boundary and, only if required, at

specified internal points. Since for CP analysis the solution is only needed
on the surfaces, it is far easier to analyse the results than for FE analysis
which automatically gives results for all nodes (internal or boundary).
- BE methods are very effective and accurate for modelling infinite
domains as is the case for CP analysis.

2 State of the art

Numerical methods have been widely used in the corrosion field since the early
80’s when IMI Marstons employed them to help model the performance of the
impressed anodes to be used on the Conoco TLP platform for the North Sea [2].
They have been successfully compared with physical scale modeling
experimental results and data obtained from tests performed on full size ships
[3]. DeGiorgi, Kee and Thomas studied a 3D model of a U S Navy CG class ship
[4] using boundary elements. The potential profiles for reference cell readings of
-0.85 Volts Ag/AgCl showed very good agreement between experimental and
computational results. The difference between experimental and computational
results was 6% for total current values, 5% for Amps to the propeller and 10%
for Amps to the docking blocks. The general conclusions were that, boundary
element methods were a viable technique for determining marine corrosion
parameters.
Gartland, Bjoernaas and Osvoll described in their paper published in the 1999
Corrosion Conference in San Antonio, where a special session was organised on
computer modelling, what they had learnt in 15 years of work [5]. Some of the
points highlighted were:
- CP design is an area where experience is quite important, and
even if there are several guidelines available, these are not written to
meet the new challenges. Computer modelling has no such limitations.
- Computer modelling is very well suited for "what if-studies", where
results can be obtained rather quickly compared to time-consuming
experiments, or where full-scale experiments cannot even be carried out.
- The usefulness of CP modelling is perhaps most evident for
problems related to uneven anode distribution or hybrid systems. CP
design guidelines offer absolutely no means to create a safe CP design
for a structure with uneven anode distribution. All equations and
formulas used to calculate the required anode mass and anode size are
based on the assumption that the anodes shall be distributed “most
evenly” on the structure.
- The influence of the boundary conditions depend very much on the
problem. For a verification study of a structure covering the entire
lifetime, the boundary conditions must be very accurately modelled,
which includes their non-linearity and the time dependence.
- Upgrading of CP systems for existing structures is an area where
computer modelling has proven to be cost effective. In a study of the
Ninian Northen it was concluded that a saving was in the order of

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£7.75m using CP Modelling technology combined with measurements of

the current densities on the platform before retrofitting.

3 Stray currents
Stray current corrosion can be caused by the systems used to protect ship hulls
and buried structures, by the DC electrical systems used to power trolley cars,
and by a number of other sources. Stray current corrosion is of immense
economic importance, since it has led to such problems as rapid failure of buried
natural gas pipelines and water mains, and costly repairs to ship structures and
piers.

Figure 1: Stray current corrosion of the ICCP system of the ship to the dock.

The basis of the interference model presented in this paper is explained in

detail by Trevelyan and Hack [9]. A ships impressed current cathodic protection
(ICCP) system consists of a power supply which forces current out of the anode,
through the seawater, and into the ship’s hull to complete the circuit. The action
of the current causes a shift in electrochemical potential of the steel of the ship’s
hull which slows or stops the normal tendency of steel to corrode in seawater.
This technique is used to control corrosion on all large ships and most small
ones. On large ships, the current being delivered by the anodes is typically
controlled by monitoring the amount of potential shift of the steel hull using
special electrodes called reference cells. The current is usually adjusted to give a
fixed steel potential near the controlling reference cell. A ship may dock near a
large metallic object such as the steel sheet piling on the pier to which the ship is
tied. This creates the situation, illustrated in Figure 1. Current flowing from the

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ship’s anode through the seawater to the ship hull encounters a resistance due to
the resistivity of seawater. If the sheet piling is closer to the anode than sections
of the ship hull, the current has an alternate path that it may follow. It can travel
through a much shorter seawater path to the piling, through the low resistance
steel of the piling until it gets close to the ship hull, then through another short
seawater path between the piling and the hull to complete the circuit. At the point
where the current enters the piling, the steel is protected from corrosion the same
way as the ship hull is protected by the cathodic protection system. Where the
current leaves the piling to enter the seawater, the opposite occurs. The corrosion
of the steel piling in this area is dramatically increased. The magnitude of the
resulting stray current corrosion depends on how much the cathodic protection
current takes the alternate path through the piling.
The behaviour of the cathodic protection system of a frigate in open sea and
its influence, interference on a steel made dock, is shown in the next sections of
this paper. In addition, a possible mitigation of the interference by placing a
sacrificial cathodic protection system on the walls of the dock is also shown.

4 Frigate model, description

The dimensions of the frigate are:
- Waterline length: 34.0m.
- Draft: 2.3m.
- Waterline beam: 6.4m.

Figure 2: Frigate and damage distribution.

The frigate was considered fully coated apart from some specific damaged
areas (Figure 2):
- Area at the stern of the frigate, nearby the propeller, area= 3.51m2.
- Shaft of the propellers, area= 0.18m2.
- Small area of the keel, area= 3.18m2.

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- Area at the bow, area= 11.56m2.

The propeller was set made of Nickel-Aluminium-Bronze with an area of
1.84m2. The electrolyte considered was seawater with a resistivity of 20ohm⋅cms
[8], what implies a conductive of about 5S/m [8].
Two impressed anodes were placed at the starboard and port sides of the hull
of the frigate in addition to two reference cells of silver chloride
(Ag/AgCl/seawater). The criterion for protection was that the reference cells
should be in -900mV to assure that the surrounded areas were protected.

5 Analysis of the Frigate ICCP system on open sea

Initially the frigate was analysed considering an open sea environment where
there were no interference with the environment. Thus, the normal behaviour of
the ICCP (Impress current cathodic protection) system could be set.
The current of the impressed anodes were iteratively adjusted to satisfy the
potential required at the reference electrodes (-900mV). This was achieved using
the boundary elements software assisted by optimisation software [10-14].
The final potential distribution on the hull of the ship is shown below
(Figure 3). The area near the propeller is the anode more likely of suffering from
corrosion since its potential is above the rest of the areas of the ship.

Figure 3: Potential distribution of the frigate in open sea.

15

Figure 4: Dock height.

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6 Analysis of the Frigate ICCP system berthed at a steel dock

The frigate is moved near a dock where it is berthed for simple maintenance. For
the sake of simplicity, the dock is considered a plate made of steel of 15m height.
The frigate was berthed at the port at about 1.75m from the dock. The
frigate’s ICCP system was not switched off unless a diver needed to inspection
the hull.

1.75m

Figure 5: Distance from the ship to the dock.

The potential distribution on the hull of the ship is shown in Figure 6. It can
be observed that the potential distribution presents a slightly higher value than
the values had when the ship was on open sea.

Figure 6: Potential distribution of the frigate’s hull berthed at the dock.

The total current supplied by the anodes is about 4% larger than the value had
when the frigate was on open sea. Therefore, the dock must be influencing the
measurements of the reference cells of the ship to make the ICCP system to
generate more current to keep them at -900 mV.
A study of the dock shows that there are two clear areas with different
potentials, one of the areas is acting anodically as the other is acting cathodically.
In fact, the current the dock is receiving current from the impressed anodes of the
frigate and the current returns to the frigate near the propeller, creating two areas
with cathodic and anodic behaviour respectively.
The current returning to the ship from the dock will provoke faster corrosion
of this area of the dock and therefore a remedy to this situation must be
considered.

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Figure 7: Current distribution on the dock.

Figure 8: Current distribution on the dock and ship’s hull.

7 A passive cathodic protection on the dock

In order to avoid the previous situation in which the dock was being corroded by
the ICCP system of the frigate, a passive system (sacrificial anodes) of protection
was designed which consisted of an array of 60 zinc anodes was placed on the
wall of the dock. The dimensions of those anodes are shown in Figure 9.

0.16

1.2
Figure 9: Zinc anode dimensions.

1st row
15

Figure 10: Anodes distribution on the wall of the dock.

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The anodes were distributed on the wall of the dock as it is shown in figure
10. When no ship is near the dock the potential distribution is as shown in the
Figure 12.

3m

5.5m

Figure 11: Distance between anodes on the wall.

Figure 12: Cathodic protection of the dock when no ships in its surroundings.

Figure 13: Cathodic protection of the dock when the frigate is berthed.

In addition, the current supplied by anodes on the frigate is very similar to the
current supplied when no anodes were placed on the dock. In contrast to the case
with no sacrificial anodes, the dock is protected from corrosion and no anodic
areas are found.

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Norm al current supplied by the zinc anodes, 1st row

-3200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
-3300

-3400

-3500

-3600
A n od e I D
-3700

Normal Curr ent (No Fr igat e) Normal Curr ent (Fr igat e)

Figure 14: Current supplied by the anodes when there was and there was not a
ship berthed (1st row).
Norm al current supplied by the zinc anodes, 2nd row

-3200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
-3300

-3400

-3500

-3600
A no de I D
-3700

Normal Current (No Frigat e) Normal Current (Frigat e)

Figure 15: Current supplied by the anodes when there was and there was not
ship berthed (2nd row).
Norm al current supplied by the zinc anodes, 3rd row

-3300
-3350 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

-3400
-3450

-3500
-3550
-3600 A n od e I D
-3650

Normal Current (No Frigat e) Normal Current (Frigat e)

Figure 16: Current supplied by the anodes when there was and there was not
ship berthed (3rd row).

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The impressed anodes of the frigate still supply current to the dock and the
current returns back to the frigate near the propeller position. However, the
current returning back from the sacrificial anodes causes a higher consumption
of these anodes. Thus, it can be seen in Figure 14–Figure 18 that the current
supplied by the sacrificial anodes of the dock near the impressed anodes supply
less current to the dock when the frigate is berthed than when there is no ship
around. In contrast, the sacrificial anodes near the propeller supply more current
to the dock and to the frigate.
Norm al current supplied by the zinc anodes, 4th row

-3300
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
-3400

-3500

-3600
A n od e I D
-3700

Normal Current (No Frigat e) Normal Current (Frigat e)

Figure 17: Current supplied by the anodes when there was and there was not
ship berthed (4th row).

Norm al current supplied by the zinc anodes, 5th row

- 3300
- 3350 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

- 3400
- 3450
- 3500
- 3550
- 3600
- 3650 A nod e I D

Normal Current (No Frigat e) Normal Curr ent (Fr igat e)

Figure 18: Current supplied by the anodes when there was and there was not a
ship berthed (5th row).

8 Conclusions
Quantitative data on the behaviour of the cathodic protection system of a frigate
in open sea and its influence/interference on a steel dock has been shown by
using computer simulation software. A possible mitigation of the interference by
placing a sacrificial cathodic protection system on the walls of the dock was
attempted with the results that still there were stray currents coming from the

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frigate into the dock and from the sacrificial anodes of the dock back to the
frigate. Thus, the sacrificial anodes of the frigate placed near the propeller of the
frigate will be consumed faster than the rest. In contrast, the sacrificial anodes
placed near the impressed anodes of the frigate will last longer since the frigate is
providing part of the current necessary to protect the dock. Anode consumption
rates were predicted by the computer model under various possible scenarios.
The simulation has been carried out using the BEASY boundary elements
package software [1] and the assistance of an optimisation tool was essential to
obtain a faster convergence of the problem. It could be observed that 3D model
enables the impact of small changes to the geometric design, coating condition,
location of anodes etc to be easily assessed.

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14 Simulation of Electrochemical Processes

[12] Adey R A, Baynham J M W, Design and Optimisation of Cathodic

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