Recent progresses in understanding pipeline coating degraduation

The durability and performance of organic coatings, which are widely used for mitigating corrosion of buried oil, gas and water pipelines, are known to be affected by cathodic protection (CP), mechanical stress and the corrosive environment. This paper presents an overview of our recent findings on the impact of CP, mechanical stresses and the environment on epoxy based coatings. New approaches have been taken to understand and assess the impact of CP and mechanical stresses on organic coatings under simulated underground pipeline conditions. Coating’s properties have been assessed using electrochemical, surface analytical and computational modelling techniques such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, multi-electrode array, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray computed tomography and finite element analysis.