NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF CATHODIC PROTECTION SYSTEMS

Resumo

In this paper, the Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS) and the Meshless Local Petrov-
Galerkin (MLPG) method are applied to the numerical simulation of Cathodic Protection (CP)

systems. The problem of CP systems is governed by the Laplace equation. In this problem, the
boundary conditions are characterized by a nonlinear relationship between the electrochemical
potential and the current density, called cathodic polarization curve. Thus, the Levenberg-Marquardt
algorithm is here used to solve the nonlinear problem. The performance of both methods is evaluated
by comparing its results with these provided by the Boundary Element Method (BEM). Furthermore,
the BEM coupled with the Genetic Algorithms (GAs) is applied for the simulation of inverse problems
in CP systems. The van Genuchten-Mualem model is here used to predict the parameters of the
nonlinear polarization curve. A numerical simulation is presented in order to illustrate the good
performance of the coupled BEM-GAs approach.