Effects Of Rectifier And Copper Grid Interference On The Detection Reliability Of Coating Flaws On Buried Pipes

The external corrosion of buried piping can be controlled using both coating and cathodic protection. Several factors are involved in the damage and deterioration of the coating on pipes. There are many detection methods for coating defects on pipes and the direct current voltage gradient (DCVG) method is one of the most powerful methods. However, the detection reliability of DCVG can be affected by interferences such as stray current, metal objects connected to rectifiers, and copper grids. Therefore, this study focused on the interference effects of rectifiers and a copper grid on the reliability of coating flaw detection. As the length of the interference pipe connected to the rectifier increased, the reliability decreased. In contrast, as the distance between the pipe and the copper grid increased, the reliability of the coating flaw detection increased. The detection results produced by the DCVG method were discussed using current and potential simulations for a pipe with a rectifier and copper grid interference in the soil.