The long term integrity management of offshore buoy moorings chain connectors is mandatory, especially for preventing any risk of fatigue corrosion cracks. The chain connector is basically a few meters long hawse pipe fully immersed in seawater with the ratchet on buoy side and the guide ring on the other side. A few links of chain located inside this pipe must be efficiently cathodically protected from sacrificial anodes which can only be located on the external part of the hawse. Space between chain links and the internal part of the pipe is narrow, leading to a significant potential drop. To ensure current distribution on the chain, holes have to be drilled on the pipe so that more cathodic protection current can reach the surface of links. 3D simulation software, based on boundary elements method, has been advantageously used to determine whether these holes are necessary and it has demonstrated that a coating on the pipe internal side allows the whole chain inside the pipe to be fully protected. In addition, comparison of results with analytical simulation is given.

Subject
Electric current, Pipe surfaces, Piping, Modeling, Cathodic protection, Cathodic potential, Electrochemical current, Current densities, Internal surfaces, Internal coatings, Anodic current, Electrolytes, Anodes
Keywords:
cathodic protection, numerical simulation, modeling, buoy moorings chain
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2008
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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