A Study on the Inverse Analysis Method for Cathodic Protection Problems

Aiming at the cathodic protection monitoring technique for large scale floating structures, in this report, an inverse estimation method for electric potential distribution on the surface of floating structures based on measured potential data in sea water is developed.Considering the possible gaps between the mathematical equations and the natural phenomenon, and the fact that measurement errors can not be avoided in real engineering, unknown pseudo-noise variables are introduced into the simultaneous algebraic equations obtained by the boundary element method for the cathodic protection problems. Therefore, the calculation errors resulted from ill-posed matrix in the inverse solving procedure of the simultaneous algebraic equations can be controlled, and a true potential distribution on the structural surface in consistent with the measured potentials in sea water can be obtained.The rationality and accuracy of the proposed inverse analysis method are confirmed with experiments, and its practicability is shown from the simulating calculations for the floating structure under cathodic protection.