Corrosion control sacrificial anodes

Galvanic corrosion can be controlled by the use of sacrificial anodes. This is a common method of controlling corrosion in heat exchangers with Admiralty tube bundles and carbon steel tube sheets and channel heads. The anodes are bolted direcdy to the steel and protect a limited area around the anode. Proper placement of sacrificial anodes is a precise science. 

Cathodic protection (CP) is an electrochemical technique of corrosion control in which the potential of a metal surface is moved in a cathodic direction to reduce the thermodynamic tendency for corrosion. CP requires that the item to be protected be in contact with an electrolyte. Only those parts of the item that are electrically coupled to the anode and to which the CP current can flow are protected. Thus, the inside of a buried pipe is not capable of cathodic protection unless a suitable anode is placed inside the pipe. The electrolyte through which the CP current flows is usually seawater or soil. Fresh waters generally have inadequate conductivity (but the interiors of galvanized hot water tanks are sometimes protected by a sacrificial magnesium anode) and the conductivity... 

Corrosion in these areas is sometimes effectively controlled by cathodic protection with zinc- or aluminium-alloy sacrificial anodes in the form of a ring fixed in good electrical contact with the steel adjacent to the non-ferrous component. This often proves only partially successful, however, and it also presents a possible danger since the corrosion of the anode may allow pieces to become detached which can damage the main circulating-pump impeller. Cladding by corrosion-resistant overlays such as cupronickel or nickel-base alloys may be an effective solution in difficult installational circumstances. 

Copper-base alloys will corrode in aerated conditions. It is, therefore, sometimes appropriate to consider cathodic protection. It becomes particularly relevant when the flow rates are high or when the design of an item causes the copper to be an anode in a galvanic cell (e.g. a copper alloy tube plate in a titanium-tubed heat exchanger). Corrosion can be controlled by polarisation to approximately — 0-6V (vs. CU/CUSO4) and may be achieved using soft iron sacrificial anodes. 

The forms of corrosion which can be controlled by cathodic protection include all forms of general corrosion, pitting corrosion, graphitic corrosion, crevice corrosion, stress-corrosion cracking, corrosion fatigue, cavitation corrosion, bacterial corrosion, etc. This section deals exclusively with the practical application of cathodic protection principally using the impressed-current method. The application of cathodic protection using sacrificial anodes is dealt with in Section 10.2. 

Corrosion control technology is a mainstay of automobile coatings as well as household appliances for example, the lifetime of water heaters is extended and often governed by the presence of a magnesium sacrificial anode that represents a small fraction of the appliance price. 

The sacrificial CP technique involves the use of a more active metal than that used in the structure to be protected to supply the current needed to control corrosion. The more active metal is called a sacrificial anode [35]. Coupling two dissimilar metals... 

Sacrificial anode CP systems have been used for the corrosion control of bridge decks as long as impressed-current anode systems for corrosion control of bridge decks. Two of the earliest field trials (1977) for sacrificial anode systems were the following ... 

Because of the relatively high resistivity of atmospherically exposed concrete substructures, most anodes utilize impressed current to achieve the necessary driving voltages to supply the current required for corrosion control. However, an exception to this is the use of sacrificial zinc anodes for CP of coastal bridges in Florida, which have a relatively low concrete resistance. However, studies continue to examine the use of sacrificial anodes because of the benefit of its low maintenance compared to impressed-current CP systems. Two of these studies are the following ... 

CP is the required method of corrosion control of buried pipelines. The two forms of CP are impressed-current and sacrificial anode systems. Both forms of protection have been in use in industry for quite some time and the industrial personnel are familiar with their installation and operation (NACE Standard RP0169-96). 

The three basic corrosion control methods used in corrosion control of home appliances are (i) corrosion control by sacrificial anodes (ii) use of corrosion-resistant materials (iii) corrosion control by coatings and paint. 

Sometimes the need to be environmentally acceptable may lead to new problems. For instance, ozone was suggested to replace biocides with no data available on the performance in the chlorination of water (60). Corrosion control techniques can have both favorable as well as ill effects and hence one has to exert balanced judgment before embarking on a corrosion prevention method. Organotin antifouling coatings on ships were effective, but they polluted the seawater and hence were banned from further use. The use of cadmium as a sacrificial anode is restricted because of its toxicity. Large amounts of zinc are used to protect steel platforms in the sheltered and shallow waters of the sea, and the effects of zinc on the contamination of waters are not known. 

Cathodic protection (CP) is defined as the reduction or elimination of corrosion by making the metal a cathode by means of impressed current or sacrificial anode (usually magnesimn, aluminum, or zinc) [11]. This method uses cathodic polarization to control electrode kinetics occurring on the metal-electrolyte interface. The principle of cathodic protection can be explained by the Wagner-Traud mixed potential theory [12]. 

For pipe systems of stainless steel carrying chlorinated seawater, internal localized corrosion can be very efficiently prevented by the application of Resistance-controlled Cathodic Protection (RCP). A resistance is simply inserted between the sacrificial anode and the pipeline, and this makes a system that is particularly suitable when there is a low diffusion-limiting cathodic current in the critical potential range [10.29]. Typical of the method is that the current output from the anode is kept low, which has the consequence that the voltage drops are low and the protected pipe length from each anode is long. 

Cathodic protection (CP) is an electrical method of mitigating corrosion on metallic structures that are exposed to electrolytes such as soils and waters. Corrosion control is achieved by forcing a defined quantity of direct current to flow from auxiliary anodes through the electrolyte and onto the metal structure to be protected. Theoretically, corrosion of the structure is completely eliminated when the open-circuit potentials of the cathodic sites are polarized to the open-circuit potentials of the anodic sites. The entire protected structure becomes cathodic relative to the auxiliary anodes. Therefore, corrosion of the metal structure will cease when the applied cathodic current equals the corrosion current. There are two basic methods of corrosion control by cathodic protection. One involves the use of current that is produced when two electrochemically dissimilar metals or alloys (Table 19.1) are metallically connected and exposed to the electrolyte. This is commonly referred to as a sacrificial or galvanic cathodic protection system. The other method of cathodic protection involves the use of a direct current power source and auxiliary anodes, which is commonly referred to as an impressed-current cathodic protection system. Then cathodic protection is a technique to reduce the corrosion rate of a metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell [3]. 

As described already, not only the property of corrosion resistance, but other desired functions are required for materials. Therefore, the best surface finishing processes need to be selected for specific materials in certain environments. Figure 8 shows the concept to design the surface finishing for corrosion control. In addition to the conventional concept, we have to take the possibility of environmental harmfulness into consideration. Corrosion often leads to the contamination of our environment, since the anodic dissolution is the essence in most cases. Therefore, sacrificial corrosion protection might be prohibited in some cases. From that perspective, the appropriate surface coating will be more versatile in the future. Chapter The Application of Corrosion Protection presents and discusses surface finishing processes. 

There are several methods that can be used to control corrosion of steel reinforcements in concrete. First, the design of the structure should provide for drainage of salt-containing waters away from the reinforced concrete. Second, concrete of adequate thickness, high quality, and low permeability should be specified to protect the reinforcements from the environment. Third, chloride content of the concrete mix should be kept to a minimum. For further protection, the steel reinforcements can be epoxy-coated. In many parts of North America, steel reinforcements used in bridge decks are now epoxy-coated as a standard construction procedure. Cathodic protection is also being used, both with impressed current anodes and with sacrificial anodes [61]. (See Chapter 13.)... 

Cathodic protection is probably the most important of all approaches to corrosion control. Using an externally applied electric current, corrosion is reduced essentially to zero. A metal surface that is cathodically protected can be maintained in a corrosive environment without deterioration for an indefinite time. There are two types of cathodic protection impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) and sacrificial anode cathodic protection (SACP), also known as galvanic cathodic protection. 

In this equation U is the output voltage of the power supply. The fact that its value can be adjusted according to needs gives more flexibility for controlling the current than the use of a sacrificial anode, whose corrosion potential in a given environment can not be varied. 

Cathodic control protection protects the substrate by coating with a less noble metal, for which the slopes of the cathodic polarization curves are steep. The cathodic overpotential of the surface is increased by the coating therefore, the corrosion potential becomes more negative than that of the substrate. Coating materials used for this purpose are zinc, aluminum, manganese, cadmium, and their alloys. The electrode potential of these metals are more negative than those of iron and steel. When exposed to the environment, these coatings act as sacrificial anodes for the iron and steel substrates. 

---