NUMERICAL MODELING OF CATHODIC PROTECTION SYSTEM LOOKING FOR PRESENT CONDITION EVALUATION AND IMPROVMENT OF PIPELINE NETWORK AT MANZANILLO, MEXICO

The capability to design, apply and even to evaluate the optimal operation of cathodic protection Systems depends of the consideration of the fundamental variables, and having alternative tools as data modeling, the optimization perspective becomes real as it has been demonstrated in multiple reports.
Under consequence of the three different stages that are impacted bye the modeling: a) After work, which help in the understanding of the effects of each variable in an installation or structure; b) At the same time. Together to the implementation process information and calculation that allow the materials optimization, geometries and economical resources; c) Before the work, which is presented in groups with experience and it allows the design of installations and the own building In case of cathodic protection modeling, it is expected to determine the actual conditions and to discard those that does not affect to the CP operation.
Numerical modeling of CP Systems has been used to study the current and pipe/soil potential behavior. Based on the boundary element method, with discrete approaches, the CatPro software is applied (developed by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics. Building models from the identified geometries in field and the pipeline conditions, a effective modeling methodology is established, where considerations as the kind of soil, electric resistivity, pipeline geometry, type and position of the involved anodes, metal characteristics, electric interconnections, type and quality of coatings, isolator joints and any element that is involved in the operation conditions of the CP systems.
This work is focused to the study of the pipeline network at the city of Manzanillo, found in the Pacific Coast of Mexico, in the Colima State. We used modeling methods for the study of pipelines located inside the city, which transports hydrocarbon products from the maritime terminal to a thermoelectric central (south) and to a storage tank farm (north). This pipelines network has actually a ICCP system, which is not enough for covering the corrosion protection expectative; the use of several tools for helping to make decisions that reduce costs of system rehabilitation.

The validation of the initial model is made against pipe/soil potential data obtained from the CIS, which results in retro-alimentation data about the quality and size of defects in the used coating for the models, obtaining a model that represents the CP system actual conditions. After having a validated model, it is obtained a new model with modifications to the system that allow a optimal redesign, increasing the information and the parameters to make sustained decisions at the minimal cost. Once the re-habilitation of the CP system, based on the modeled results, the new pipe/soil potential values are compared with the predicted by the model, and the conjunction of experimental and theoretical data gives information of substantial elements for the pipeline network maintenance and generates a perspective of continual parameters evaluation in critical sites predictable from the modeling procedure.