Higher-order simulation of impressed current cathodic protection systems

Abstract

In this paper, a surface integral equation formulation for the prediction of corrosion-related electrostatic fields of conducting structures in an electrolyte is presented. The integral equation is discretized using the Locally Corrected Nyström method. An iterative technique based on the Newton-Raphson method is described for use with nonlinear boundary conditions, and a Schur complement method is discussed to help improve the nonlinear solution efficiency. An image plane method is applied when an appropriate planar electrolyte-insulating bounding surface is present. The methods are validated by analysis of a canonical problem with analytic solution and by comparison to literature data. Higher-order solution convergence is observed for the canonical problem results.