Why are civil engineers responsible for cathodic protection?

I do not know just what the codes, union rules, or any of the formal legal stuff is. Cathodic protection should be practiced by someone who understands it. My guess is that, all other things being equal, an electrochemist will understand it best.

It is not difficult to understand the fundamentals. Having experience and judgement is not always easy to achieve.

Bill

Electricians perform work on impressed current systems where rectifiers are used, but labors do the work on the passive galvanic systems. The importance of these systems to prevent leaks is of utmost when trying to protect crude tanks and pipelines that contain and transport millions of gallons. While working at the Red Dog mine Port Site near Kotzebue, Alaska an impressed current system used to protect the steel at a loading dock was connected in reverse. Strangely, a bouy chain about 2 miles away in the Chuckchi Sea was eaten in two in a matter of weeks. It would seem that the NEC should contain rules to insure that these systems are tested after completion.

Is there any evidence, other that two things happened concurrently (no pun intended), that the bad protection job had anything to do with the chain? It boggles the mind.

Bill

Wandering off into an aside, once more:

I was in a marina office when a yacht owner came in complaining furiously about the slipshod work of the marina staff who had done his anti-fouling. They had missed bits of the hull, entirely. He wanted them sacked and for the whole job to be done again.

The marina managed went with the customer to check and came back laughing a few minutes later - the "bits of hull that were missed" were, of course, the sacrificial anodes..

-- Sue

In general, a civil engineer would be responsible for building structures and the like, and how to maintain them. And that's the purpose of cathodic protection, to protect the structure from galvanic corrosion created by dissimilar metals in a moist environment like dirt or seawater.

It's my understanding that NEC deals with the safe use of electricity, not so much the protection of structural metal components.

FWIW,

daestrom

The purpose of the NEC is the practical safeguarding of persons and property from the hazards arising from the use of electricity. The property protection is generally presumed to be from fires cause by electricity. In my opinion, this scope should be expanded to include environmental protection since an improperly connected cathodic protection system can cause very serious environmental damage when oil pipelines and crude oil storage tanks are included. While working at the Valdez Marine Terminal on the Trans- Alaska pipeline we were often trying to determines if conductors were catholic protection conductors or grounding conductors. This facility has over 14 miles of cable tray and a very elaborate cathodic protection system.

It would not be out of place for the NEC to address wiring methods used and any possible safety issues with systems that impose currents and potentials on grounded conductors and grounding systems.

But the design of cathodic protection to ensure that it functions as intended should be the responsibility of the structural folks.