Cathodic Protection of Ductile Iron Water Pipelines

Abstract The premature failure of water pipelines has resulted in an increased awareness that preventing external corrosion on water mains is critical. Cathodic protection, which has been in wide use for decades in the oil and gas industry, has been recognized as a cost effective method to prevent external corrosion and premature failures. This paper explains how cathodic protection works, the different types of cathodic protection, and several case histories are discussed that show how cathodic protection has been applied to ductile iron water pipelines. The case histories include a wide range of piping sizes to show the effectiveness of cathodic protection for virtually all sizes of pipe.