Higher-order simulation of impressed current cathodic protection systems

In this paper, a surface integral equation formulation for the prediction of corrosion related electrostatic fields of conducting structures in an electrolyte is presented. The integral equation is discretized using the Locally Corrected Nystrom method. An iterative technique based on the Newton-Raphson method is described for use with nonlinear boundary conditions, and a Schur complement method is discussed to help improve the nonlinear solution efficiency. An image plane method is applied when an appropriate planar electrolyte-insulating bounding surface is present. The methods are validated by analysis of a canonical problem with analytic solution and by comparison to literature data. Higher-order solution convergence is observed for the canonical problem results. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.