Anodic grounding electrodes made of electroconducting elastomers: Estimating their electrochemical parameters and reliability by the operational impedance method

The electrochemical behavior of electrodes made of electroconducting elasto mers and intended for anodically grounding metal pipelines, to protect them electrochemically, is considered. The electrodes' transition resistance R- tr is selected as the main parameter characterizing their operational state . Dependences of R-tr on the charge a passed through the electrodes are obt ained for different anodic polarization current densities. The dependences suggest that predicting the electrodes' performance at elevated polarizatio n current densities is well justified. The performance and lifetime of the electrodes can be predicted by comparing the measured value of R-tr with a calibration R-tr vs. q curve for a given electrode type.