Cathodic Protection System Design Framework

The aim of this article is to establish a cathodic protection (CP) system design framework for the petrochemical industry in South Africa. The CP system design framework is destined to be used as a guideline when designing CP systems for structures such as tanks, underground pipelines, and plant areas within the petrochemical industry. Certain aspects of corrosion and corrosion mitigation are addressed in this paper. The research approach and analytical design methods used during the formulation of the proposed design framework are discussed. The verification and validation of the proposed design framework are addressed in terms of simulated and measured results for an underground pipeline network. The simulated results used for verification purposes were obtained from computer software utilizing the boundary element method in determining potential distributions on the surfaces of protected structures.