Cathodic protection of extended buried conductor networks: a new design method

Corrosion prevention of buried metallic facilities (i.e. piping, armoured cables etc.) by means of cathodic protection is practised in both civil and industrial fields. The design of adequate cathodic protection for an individual conductor is rather simple. However, for the case of several conductors forming complex and extended nets, where the theoretical prediction of the potentials distribution consequent to the cathodic protection currents injection may be a hard task, the design of cathodic protection is rather more problematical. The authors propose a method, based on the electrical linear network equations, that allows a solution to the problem. Experimental results to vindicate the method are also reported