Author(s)

E Santana Diaz & R Adey

Abstract

Corrosion damage is a major factor in ship maintenance and availability. Paints and shipboard impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) systems are important established tools in the reduction of corrosion damage to ships. The design of cathodic protection systems is of interest to defence organisations not only to protect the integrity of the ship but also because of the electric fields generated in the sea water by the ICCP system. Recent developments in computer simulation techniques based on the boundary element method has enabled the electric fields generated by the galvanic interaction of the ship metallic structure and the sea water to be predicted. Thus providing a tool to predict changes in the protection level of the ship and the electric field in the seawater caused by modification to the ICCP system. Ina previous paper techniques for minimisation of the electric field were studied by placing several anodes on the hull of the vessel [l] and automatically adjusting the anode current. In this paper the electric field is minimised by moving the position of the anode as well as changing the current. The proposed approach uses source points to represent the anodes.

Keywords