Optimisation Of Cathodic Protection Systems

Cathodic protection is used to prevent corrosion of the hull of a marine vessel to avoid thinning of the hull plates, damage to welds and initiation of pitting, and thus reducing the maintenance on the ship and preserving the smoothness of the hull. Boundary Elements Methods (BEM) has been widely used in the cathodic protection field to simulate the performance of the CP system and to predict the associated corrosion related electric and magnetic fields surrounding the vessel [1]. In this work optimisation methods are developed which combine with the BEM to predict the minimum currents of the anodes to protect the vessel within certain range of protection potential. The global optimisation approach enables corrosion engineers to define the objectives of the simulation rather than predicting the response to a specific set of conditions.