Modeling of the corrosion process in steel oil pipelines in order to improve environmental safety
Experimental studies demonstrated that the main role in the corrosion processes on a steel pipeline in the fracture of an insulation coating exposed to aggressive solutions belongs to the work of macro galvanic couples pairs «metal of pipe in the fracture - metal of pipe under an insulation coating». The current of given galvanic couples is a universal indicator for calculating the loss of metal in fractures.Modeling of the electrochemical corrosion of steel in an oil pipeline section in the fracture of an insulation coating is reduced to determining the stationary electric field that occurs during work of a macro galvanic couple. Distribution of electric field potential is determined by solving a two-dimensional Laplace differential equation. Calculations by the model allow us to predict corrosion losses of metal in a pipeline in the fractures of an insulation coating exposed to aggressive electrolytic solutions regardless of their chemical composition.The benefit of the technique developed is the possibility to predict the development of corrosion over time and obtaining the required estimated parameters on structures under operation by a non-destructive method.