Occurrence of anodic current and corrosion of steel in aqueous media under fluctuating cathodic protection potentials

Excursion of cathodic protection (CP) potential from the designed "safe" CP level resulting from various forms of electrical interference signals are observed rather frequently in industrial applications, in particular in the pipeline industry; however, the influence of such potential fluctuations on the corrosion behavior of steel under CP conditions does not yet appear to be fully understood. In this work, the effects of anodic transients that periodically shift the potential of a CP protected steel electrode from-1,200 mVAg/AgCl to-750 mVAg/AgCl on the corrosion of a steel electrode in aqueous media was investigated using square wave polarization. Anodic currents were measured that lasted for significant periods of time upon stepping the CP potential up to a less cathodic potential at various frequencies (1 h, 30 s, 10 s, 5 s, and 1 s). Part of such anodic currents is found to cause steel corrosion, and this is explained on the basis of understanding the Fe/H2O equilibrium.