Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1997

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Hartt, William H.

Abstract

Twenty-four test cells arranged in a pipe flow setup were assembled to investigate the effect of seawater velocity on the polarization behavior of galvanically polarized mild steel. Each 1023 steel pipe specimen of 10.8 em ID was coupled via a current limiting resistor to a mercury activated aluminum anode and exposed to a velocity of either 0.03, 0.09 or 0.30 m/s. The resistors were sized such that polarization was controlled according to one of six slope parameters. Steady state potential and maintenance current density values were determined, and a steady state potential vs. current density curve was established for specimens in each velocity. Some specimens experienced a rise in cathode potential and current density after an apparent steady state had been reached. This was probably related to the influence of velocity on the protectiveness of the calcareous deposit. Of the specimens that experienced a rise in steady state potential and current density, a few were later observed to decrease in potential and current density and reach steady state. Steady state current density vs. velocity plots of specimens at steady state potentials of -0.78, -0.88 and -0.98 V showed that current density was directly proportional to velocity as well as relatively insensitive to potential. Ficks' first law was utilized in conjunction with an empirically derived dimensionless correlation that characterizes the behavior between fluid velocity and mass transfer of molecular species from the bulk solution to the cathode surface in turbulent seawater pipe flow. Calcareous deposit porosity constants were calculated and it was surmised that as velocity increased by a factor of three, the porosity of the deposits near 0.78 and -0.89 V increased by multiples of about two on average. Porosity at the above potentials increased with decreasing potential by a factor of a little over two. SEM micrographs were made and EDX analyses were performed on the calcareous deposits of selected specimens.

Extent

94 p.

Comments

College of Engineering and Computer Science|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1997.|College of Engineering and Computer Science

Identifier

FADT15501

Format

pdf

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