Managing electrical interference on pipelines

by Anand Kulkarni Director Corrosion Control Services

Managing electrical interference on pipelines

DC: foreign CP systems, stray traction current AC: capacitive, resistive, inductive AC Corrosion

CP System Interference: anode potential gradients

Pipe potential becomes cathodic (more negative) in the vicinity of anode bed and anodic (more positive) at electrically remote location

CP System Interference : cathode potential gradients

Pipe potential becomes anodic (more positive) at the crossing and cathodic (more negative) at electrically remote location

Mitigating interference due to cathode potential gradients

Reduce on potential of the interfering pipeline. Local CP for interfered pipeline. Bond the pipelines. Ensure minimal coating defects at the interfered pipeline.

DC Stray Traction Current

Mitigating DC Stray Traction Current

AC Interference: capacitive & resistive coupling

Capacitive coupling occurs when pipe string is influenced by electrical field of the HVAC power line when placed on wooden skids and isolated from earth. The voltage of pipeline-to-earth depends on length of pipeline, distance from HVAC line, voltage of HVAC circuit Remedy: install ground rods on either ends of the pipe Resistive coupling occurs when a single phase to earth fault traveling down a HVAC tower leg enters the surrounding soil through the ground rod raising the local soil potential versus remote earth Remedy: adequate distance between HVAC ground rod and pipeline

AC Interference: inductive coupling

HVAC Mitigation: imbalanced grounding

HVAC Mitigation: balanced grounding

Mitigating Inductive AC Interference: single HVAC line

Grounding at locations where pipeline or HVAC power line significantly changes direction Grounding resistance must be relatively close to characteristic impedance of pipeline

Short and long-term multiple HVAC interference modeling

Pipeline data coating quality nominal diameter Overhead HVAC power line data: operating and fault currents frequency configuration of HVAC tower: single-circuit or double circuit Length of proximity: section of pipeline paralleling the HVAC line(s) GPS coordinates of pipeline and HVAC power lines and distance between them

AC Interference Modeling: constraints in India

GPS coordinates of pipelines and overhead HVAC power lines not readily available. Timely availability of comprehensive HVAC power line data from power companies.

AC Corrosion
AC Current Density < 30 A/m2: no or low likelihood AC Current Density between 30 and 100 A/m2: medium likelihood AC Current Density > 100 A/m2: Very high likelihood
Source: European Standard CEN/TS 15280

Alkalization Mechanism
CP results in production of OH- ions leading to increase in pH. High pH combined with the potential vibration caused by the AC induces corrosion attack. Under such conditions, time taken for reduction reactions leading to formation of passive film is much slower as compared to that for oxidation reactions (corrosion) which proceed much faster. Corrosion rate increases as a function of not only AC density but also DC density (which promotes alkalization). Hence, excessive CP should be normally avoided.

Source: NACE State-of-the-Art Report on AC Corrosion, Jan 2010

Safety considerations vs. AC corrosion risk

Steady state touch voltage < 50V AC for buried pipeline inaccessible to touch. (EN standard) Steady state touch voltage < 15 AC for above grade portions of pipeline accessible to touch. (NACE standard) For a 100 mm2 holiday in 10 ohm-m soil, 100 A/m2 AC density translates to 4.4 V AC on pipeline. (Source: NACE State-of-the-Art Report on AC Corrosion, Jan 2010)

Monitoring corrosion
Coupon Test Stations for measuring AC voltage and inferring AC density. ER probes that can provide realtime monitoring of AC and DC densities

Thank You
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