Stray Current Corrosion During Marine Welding Operations Jim N. Britton Deepwater Corrosion Serices Inc., P.O. Box 229219188, Houston, TX 77218 Instances of “inexplicable” pitting corrosion damage have been observed during routine subsea inspections on offshore platforms—even when the platform cathodic protection system has been working as designed. Evidence suggests that this “corrosion” may have ben caved by cw welding operations. This article successfully on several projects. installed, the project is divided into several phases.The first phase involves the launch and positioning of the jacket support structure, emerging 10to 15 t (3 10 5 m) above the surface. It later supports the deck structure that contains all the various items of ‘speciality equipment. Once the jacket has been positioned, it is secured by pilings driven through the legs or through skirt pile guides into the seabed. ‘The next two major steps are running the drilling conductors and attaching the prefabricated deck structure to the jacket. These two phases involve a considerable amount of offshore welding, which is conducted with welding generators located on the con- Struction barge and welding leads run over to the plationm. The ma- jority of projects use conventional DC welding generators polarized with positive to the welding rod. The resistances between srrent discharge from the platform during scribes a solution that has been applied the platform structure and con- struction barge and the surround- ing seawater are extremely low, normally in milliohms. This sea~ water path offers an attractive cir- cuit for welding currents to flow between the platforms and barge. The magnitude and direction of such current flows directly affect the weight and location of metal loss. Basic Mitigation Procedures Early offshore platform instal- lations (before 1965) were often performed with no special provi- sions to mitigate the problem of stray currents. As a result, man corrosion problems were noted.” In the early “70s, some operators began to specify the installation of und wires between the plat- form and barge. This provision did reduce the problem, but because a very low parallel resistance path still existed through the seawater, large amounts of current were still interchanging. To effectively min- imize stray current damage. it is necessary to totally isolate the barge electrically from the welding operations.’ This involves the fol- lowing precautions. « Ensure that welding generator cases are grounded to the barge. «Run individual positive leads from each generator to the plat- form, ensuring that there is no insulation damage and the leads are not allowed to enter the water. A platform sitting in sea- ‘water must be considered as an extremely large number of parallel resistors « Either run the negative return leads to a common insulated buss bar on the barge and run the appropriate number of leads to a common grounding point on the platform, or run individ- ual negative return leads from each generator to the platform, again ensuring that cables have no insulation damage and are not allowed to touch the water.CATHODIC & ANODIC PROTECTION Le) + Ensure that no fortuitous metal- lic contacts exist between the platform and the barge. # Ensure that negative leads are not in any way grounded to the barge unless the positive elec- trode from the same generator is also being used on the barge. These procedures are basically those currently specified by the majority of offshore operators. Inspection Problems The procedures indicated pre- viously certainly reduce risk of se- rious corrosion damage to a plat- form. The problem is to verify that true isolation is maintained throughout the project ‘A large offshore platform in- stallation in deep water uses a derrick barge with 20 to35 welding stations. In addition, there often is a material barge tied alongside, carrying conductor piping and pilings. The electrical resistances between the platform structure and construction barge and the surrounding seaimater are exiremely low, normally int rilliohmas. Problems can arise when welding activity is ongoing on ei- ther of the two barges at the same time as welding on the platform To prevent corrosion of the barge, is necessary to have both posi- tive and negative leads on the barge. If the positive electrode is then later deployed to work on the platform and the negative ground is overlooked, a stray current situ- ation is set up. Itis difficult for an on-site inspector to continuously ‘monitor the status of 20 to 35 pairs of welding leads. Other common problems are fortuitous electrical paths that may develop between the platform and barge(s). The mest common loca- tion of such faults is at the catwalk bridge, which is set up to facilitate personnal access between barge and eo This should be elec- trically isolated. In rough seas, however, this insulation material can be damaged and fail. Other areas where such problems may arise are steel wire moorings and through crane wire rope systems. ‘These problems are never im- mediately apparent. The welding operations are not alfected be- cause the seawater retum path is more than adequate to allow the welding currents to flow. Extent of the Problem The accepted consumption rate of carbon steel under corro- sion conditions varies from 17 to 20 IbiA-y (7.7 to 9.1 x kg/A-y). A large offshore project can use 20- plus welding generators. The nor- ‘mal welding current is 350 to 400 A DC from each. The number of am- pere hours of welding activity ona given project varies widely. As- suming the following as an exam- ple, we can make general esti- mates. ‘Assume 20 welding generators working for 10 days at 50 percent utlization; number of ampere hours = 20 x 10 x 12 x 350 or 840,000. At 17 Ib/A-y, the total weight of steel consumed is 1630 Ib. This is of course an exaggera- tion because it assumes that all the current is in fault condition all the time. Even if we consider 10 per- cent ground fault time, we could expect {0 loose more than 100 Ib of steel. Corrosion Sites It is a common misconception that all the stray current leaves from the anodes on a structure. If this were the case, there would be no significant problem since the previous example results in the loss of only 65 Ib (29 kg) of alumi num. A platform sitting in seaw: ter must be considered as an ex- tremely large number of parallel resistors. The current discharges proportionately from localized sites on the platform: depending on local resistance to seawater. Since the majority of offshore platforms are uncoated, it seems that the current may discharge evenly from the structure. This has not been cbserved to be the case. A bare steel platform has large areas covered with bonded mill- scale, areas where the millscale has been removed, and the anode sites. The current preferentially discharges both from areas where millscale has been removed and the anodes. Therefore, the steel areas most prone to corrosion damage are those areas that have been welded, Le., the joints end nodes. Due to the relative resis: tance values of the current flow paths, there is litle difference be- tween the nodes close to the sur- face and those deeper on the plat- form; nor is there any significant different between one side of the platform and another. Therefore, when damage is noted on one node weld, there is a strong prob- ability that itexists on all nodes on the platform. These conclusions have been supported by subsea inspections performed by the wnter and from other observations." Consequences The corrosion damage ob- served is normally in the form of localized or “shotgun” pitting in the weld bead or the heat-affected zone. Normally, this damage does not threaten the structural integ- rity of a platform. However, if the cathodic protection system fails or is inadequate, these sites may be subject to additional galvanic cor- rosion. The presence of this pitting can also hinder routine inspection of the weld. On an offshore pipeline, the potential for a similar problem is, significantly higher. While the number of ampere hours of weld- ing activity per section is reduced, 80 are the possible sites for stray current discharge. An offshore ipeline always has a coating that Fibula ‘be sapplemented with. @ cathodic protection system. As- suming that the coating is in good condition at installation, the cur- rent should discharge from the an- ode sites. As with a platiorm, the most likely area for current dis- charge from the steel lies at theCATHODIC & ANODIC PHUTEUIIUN a ] FIOURE 1 ‘Sehomatisayeton avangement. welded joints. Thisis typically also the weakest link in the integrity of the coating system: the field joints. Monitoring and Control of the Problem Potential Measurement If a stray current situation is active, the most reliable way to detect it involves the measurement of steel to seawater potentials us ing a voltmeter and a reference electrode. If damage is occurring on the platform, itis essentially acting as an anode to cethodically protect the barge. When this occurs, the potential of the barge is shifted in the negative direction. Therefore, if the barge to seawater potential is monitored continuously, the pres- ence of stray currents can be detected.” Other Concerns While this solution may seem simple, there are other problems that must be taken into account before the potential monitoring technique can be effective. First, the barge potential tends to drift with time. The magnitude of these drifts depends on whether or not the barge is cathodically protected and the type of cathodic protection system installed, and the effect of rough seas and stray currents flowing between one barge and another. The use of “spot” poten- tial measurements does not always indicate that a problem exists. Therefore, the potential must be logged on a continual basis, and drifts in the barge potential should ‘be compensated. If a problem is detected, it must be brought to the attention of the inspector. Any detrimental po- tential excursions should trigger an alarm. It is necessary to know the extent and duration of the stray current activity responsible. ‘Therefore, the data from the sys- tem should be logged for future review. Since this equipment is re- quired to work in a hostile envi- ronment, the hardware must be reliable and, wherever possible, backed up. Also, because of the harsh operating environment, the equipment must have a simple-to- operate on-line verification of cor- rect operation of the facility. Stray Current Detection and Alarm System This section describes the de- sign, development, and operation of a unit that is currently working on a number of offshore platform installation projects in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. The basic system schematic is shown in Figure 1. The equipment is as follows. Reference Electrodes The first generation of equip- ment used four silver/silver chlo- ride (Ag/AgCl) reference elec- trodes, while this system uses only two zine reference electrodes. ‘The purpose of the reference electrodes is to detect shifts in the barge potential. Originally, thought that the high accuracy of Ag/AgCl electrodes was required to detect these shifts, Experience has shown, however, that zinc electrodes offer a better all-around alternative for the following rea- sons. The actual magnitude of po- tential shift caused by a stray cur- rent varies with the current den- sity that the barge is collecting. In practice, the minimum voltage shift that the system needs to ce- tect is approximately 30 mV on a well-protected barge. These levels are well within the accuracy range of zinc electrodes. AglAgCl reference electrodes are not rugged devices. They te- quire a copper cable to transmit their signal back to the control unit. Any flaw in this cable gives an error. The potential must be logged on a continual ba- sis, and drifts in the barge potential should be ‘compensated. Ag/AgCl ceference electrodes are significantly more expensive than zinc; zinc electrodes are rug- ‘ged, can be cast on steel conduc- tors, and are inexpensive. Use of multiple reference cells was originally specified for two reasons: (1) to provide redun- dancy, and (2) to monitor more points on the barge to detect the potential swings. Again, experi- ence has shown that if the refer- ence electrode is placed on the same side of the barge as the plat-CATHODIC & ANODIC PROTECTION ST form and around 6 to8 ft (2 to 3m) below the bottom of the barge any potential shifts are de- ed. This has allowed us to re- to only two cells. Voltage Comparator The signal from one of the reference electrodes is put onto one side of a voltage comparator. The voltage on the other leg is set via a trim pot to be the natural Potential of the barge at time of Calibration plus the offset voltage, which causes an alarm (normally 30 to 35 mV). Ifthe signal from the reference electrode equals or ex- ceeds the voltage on the other leg, a signal is sent to a relay, which triggers power to an alarm device. Problems can arise when welding activity is ongo- ing on either of the ‘oo barges at the same time as welding on the platform. ‘The trim pot requires periodic adjustment to reset the alarm threshold against barge potential. This is accomplished by simply reading the actual thresh- old voltage on a display and trim- ming the pot to the desired value This normally can be a daily exer- se once the systems have stabi- lized. Alarm System ‘The most effective alarm is a flashing light. The alarm is paral- iit provie a viol indication ‘he main control unit and onan extension lead to a location that is visible from anywhere on the job site. For convenience, both “test” and “retest” facilities are provided at the control unit and on the remote alarm device. Other Controls For convenience of operation, a number of other facilities are included in the control unit. A voltage meter in combination with a mode selection switch allows the operator to read reference elec: trode potentials and alarm thresh- old voltage. The same meter is CURE 2 Fld eitoring package. used when adjusting the alarm threshold. A toggle switch allows selection of either reference elec- trode as the controlling electrode. Another toggle switch causes the ‘alarm to reset only when manually acknowledged. Data Logger The unit described previously ‘can work as an or-line detection and alarm system. However, to give the operator a history of the installation, a multichannel data logging system is also provided. In routine application, six channels of data are recorded against real time as follows: Refer- ence Electrode 1 potential, Refer- ence Flectrode #2 potential, threshold voltage on comparator, alarm on ot off, AC power into unit, and AC power switched on. The combination of these data points allows both an accurate his- y of the stray current activities and the easy elimination of false alarms. Housing Figure 2 shows the entire field unit with the data logging system installed. It was designed to be a helicopter-transporiable item, housed in an “off the shelf” plastic ‘waterproof case. ‘Summary The problem of controlling stray current corrosion from weld- ing currents offshore becomes more critical as. structures move into deeper water. The methodol- ogy and hardware described in this article offer a cost-effective re- liable solution to the problem of detection of these stray currents and provide the facility for storing results for later use. References 1. OL Groce, “Bvauation of Corrosion Dam spe Dec te inpreper Grounding of Welding Unite "on Offhor Platforms "(tay CCarents)" COROSION5, Paper No. 9, atonal Assodaton of Corcalon Engineers, March 1976. 2. G.. Sump and M.D. Scant, “Stay Cur ‘tent Corrosion Daring Pationn Welding Op- ‘gations Offshore". Ofshore Technology ‘Gonferenc, Pape! No. OTC 523, Houston, ‘Toms. May 197 ‘More information may be available {from CORROSIONI90 paper no. 379, presented in Las Vegas, Nevada." CORROS| ON PD The NACE Annual Conference and Corrosion Shov CONTINUOUS SURVEYS OF CATHODIC PROTECTION SYSTEM PERFORMANCE ON BURIED PIPELINES IN THE GULF OF MEXICO Jim Britton Deepwater Corrosion Services Inc. ‘7007 Winding Walk Houston, TX 77095 ABSTRACT ‘The age of the pipeline network in the Gulf of Mexico together with extended utility requirements, has created a ‘equirement for detailed cathodic protection surveys to identify potential problem areas. The vast majority of the sipline mileage is buried below the seabed. This paper describes one presently used survey technique which allows an accurate survey of these pipelines. Seywords: offshore pipelines, cathodic protection surveys, ROVs INTRODUCTION ‘When a pipeline operator lays a line in the Gulf of Mexico, he is required to trench or bury the pipeline to a depth of.at least 5 feet if the water depth is less than 200 feet. Deeper waters donot require pipeline burial. The vast najority of the existing pipelines in thisregion is located on the shallow continental shelf and is thus buried. This situation presents a number of obvious difficulties if a survey is required, OFFSHORE PIPELINE CORROSION CONTROL tings Alll subsca pipelines are provided with an external corrosion coating, newer pipelines usually have @ thin film epoxy voating, older lines may have coal tar enamels, epoxies or bitumastic type coatings. Larger diameter lines will alsobe srovided with a reinforced concrete weight coating. This weight coating isto stabilize the pipeline and prevent it rom trying to float to the surface. These coating systems typically hold up very well and the actual percentage of ailure is typically less than 5% by area.