Study on the effect of mesh ratio to the potential distribution of RC cathodic protection using BEM

Abstract

Researchers and engineers have used cathodic protection (CP) to prevent corrosion in reinforced concrete (RC). Boundary element method (BEM) is a promising numerical technique to evaluate the effectiveness of CP on RC structures. However, some parameters that might affect the system or the potential distribution, such as mesh ratio, still need to be studied further. This paper aims to study the effect of mesh ratio on the potential distribution of RC installed CP using BEM. Simple 3D beam model of RC was used for the case study. The mesh for the model was triangular element and six variations of the mesh ratio were selected for the study. The mesh ratio obtained from the comparison between the size of the concrete element and the anode or cathode element. Simulation results show that the distribution of potential for all mesh ratios is within the protection criteria (⩽ −850 mV vs Cu/CuSO4). However, the difference between maximum and minimum potential value becomes smaller when the mesh ratio increased. Hence, it shows that the mesh ratio has an effect on the distribution of potential of RC installed CP. However, it is still tolerable since the potential within protection criteria.

Investigasi pengaruh jumlah elemen anoda terhadap distribusi potensial korosi pada beton bertulang menggunakan BEM 3D

“…Metode ini telah berhasil menyelesaikan beberapa masalah rekayasa korosi seperti rekayasa korosi pada submersible pump (Ridha 2011), rekayasa korosi pada beton bertulang (Iqbal 2019). Sehingga BEM menjadi salah satu topik yang sangat berpotensi untuk dikaji dan dikembangkan hal ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan efektifas pada metode ini [6,7,8,9]. Makalah ini bertujuan untuk mengamati pengaruh ukuran mesh anoda terhadap distribusi potensial korosi pada beton bertulang menggunakan BEM 3D…”

“…Gambar 1. Model proteksi katodik anoda korban pada beton bertulang [8] Pemodelan diawali dengan memodelkan medium (Ω) tersebut, medium tersebut berada dalam suatu keadaan tunak (terisolir sempurna) dengan konduktivitas konstan, maka medium tersebut dapat dimodelkan menggunakan persamaan Laplace (1-3):…”

“…Persamaan (7) dapat diselesaikan. Hasil kalkulasi berbentuk nilai potensial listrik di seluruh permukaan domain beton bertulang [8,9].…”