Design of compact controller and power module for corrosion and marine growth prevention

This paper presents the design of compact controller and power module for corrosion protection as well as marine growth prevention in marine structures such as ship hulls, cargos, vessels etc. The system designed provides an electrical solution to the problem of marine growth and corrosion in metallic structures in marine environment. The digital controller constantly monitors the ship hull potential using reference electrode and gives control signal to the power module so as to impress the correct amount of current on to the surface of ship-hull through the external anodes, thereby protecting the shiphull. This system provides an increased level of protection against corrosion as compared to the traditional methods. The compact power module is designed using a buck regulator IC and the controller uses PIC18F microcontroller which provides control signal to the power module based on the level of corrosion. The system is tested in simulation and experimentally verified.