IPT’s Laboratory for Corrosion and Protection has a wide experience in corrosion by soils and in cathodic protection for buried and submerged structures such as water and sewage transportation pipelines as well as petroleum and its derivative transportation pipelines.
The laboratory has an infrastructure and a trained staff to conduct field tests such as:
Pipe/soil potential determination
Soil resistivity determination
Oxireduction potential determination
Efficiency of anodes for cathodic protection system assessments
Verification of the presence of both alternating and continuous stray currents in soils
Miniaturized fully-automated petroleum storage tank for conducting tests simulating real storage tanks
Specifically in the area of AC interference, the laboratory has already established a sound methodology to predict the occurrence probability of corrosion by alternating current having a patent for a new AC probe that allows obtaining electrical and electrochemical measurements without the interference of the ohmic drop.
The Laboratory has pilot test facilities. A miniaturized fully-automated petroleum storage tank allows conducting tests simulating a real storage tank. The anodes´ efficiency and the influence of the presence of bacteria on the cathodic protection systems have been studied in this tank. Several huge soil-boxes are also available at the pilot test facilities. In these tanks, the Laboratory´s team performs testing and develops studies aiming to improve the efficiency of cathodic protection systems.
Corrosion probe for evaluation of corrosion induced by stray alternating current (AC) after one year of exposure to natural soils
In the laboratory facilities, the team develops projects for the selection of the best protection systems (paint schemes and cathodic protection) and evaluates the influence of the presence of bacteria that play an important role in corrosion processes by soil and by petroleum and its derivatives.
The reliability of the operation of electrical transformers installed in underground chambers with periodic flooding with contaminated water has been studied by the Laboratory. This study aims at selecting the best protective systems for such transformers.
