ON DEVELOPMENT OF ACCELERATED TESTING METHODS FOR EVALUATING PERFORMANCE OF ORGANIC COATINGS ABOVE 100 °C

Organic coatings are applied to protect underground and aboveground pipelines and other objects from corrosion.  Hot water soak and cathodic disbondment tests are routinely used in the coating industry to evaluate the performance of organic coatings that protect metal pipes in offshore (seawater) and onshore (aboveground or underground) applications.  Numerous technical standards, which specify the operating conditions and test parameters, are available.  The technical standards are applicable when the operating temperature is below 100 °C.  However, the organic coatings could be subjected to temperatures above 100 °C when a pipeline is carrying hot fluids.  Several attempts have been made to improve the existing test methods for evaluating coating performance above 100 °C.  In this paper, we provide a critical review of published literature on coating performance evaluation above 100 °C.  In addition, we discuss the test conditions that must be considered in developing accelerated coating evaluation methods above 100 °C.