Designing a Sacrificial Anode System

Several factors enter the determination as to how many sacrificial anodes may be
required for a given structure and corrosion problem and the manner of distributing
them with respect to the location where corrosion is occurring. The anode
requirements for a small installation will normally involve the steps taken in the
following examples. For cathodic protection of larger structures involving use of six
or more anodes or an impressed current (rectifier) system, additional steps must be
taken to assure proper functioning of the system, i.e., proper distribution of the
anodes, prevention of damage to other buried metal work, design of an economic
system, and proper operation and maintenance. (reference)
Example 1
Determine the galvanic anode requirements for a cathodic protection system of 45.7 m
of 0.1 m diameter (0.314 m circumference) coated pipe buried in the ground for a
service life of ten years. Assume that the magnesium anodes considered for this
application weight 3.6 kg and can provide 1000 Ah per 0.9 kg of metal, i.e.
approximately 50% of the faradic capacity.
Required data
o Knowledge of the condition of pipe protective coating
o Soil resistivity in ohm-centimeters (do not use sacrificial anodes in soil
whose resistivity exceeds about 3,000 ohm-centimeters).
o Assume a current demand.
o Protective current required is equal to area of bare metal to be protected
times the required current.
o Number of anodes required must be computed.
Data and assumptions for the problem
o Pipe surface 5% bare.
o Soil resistivity determined as 1,000 ohm-centimeters.
o Assume 11 mA/m2 current density demand for bare steel.
Solution
Example 2

For the same soil conditions, determine the sacrificial anode requirement to protect
four bare steel transmission tower footings in 3000-ohm-centimeter soil with
magnesium anodes now weighting 7.7 kg. Given exposed area of each footing is9.3
m2 and footing to soil (P/S) reading is 0.85 volt.
Solution
Galvanic anode requirements: tower footings
A. Protective current required

Total area to be protected = 4 x 9.3 m2 = 37.2 m2

Protective current = 37.2 m2 x 11 mA/m2 = 0.409 A
B. Number of anodes required (reference)

We know that 0.90 kg of magnesium anodes will provide 1000 Ah of current

protection
Number of anodes = Capacity required / capacity of each anode
The ampere-hour rating varies with different conditions but 0.90 kg of
magnesium can be rated at about 1000 ampere-hours (Ah). Thus, a 7.7kg magnesium anode would be expected to deliver about 8,556 ampere-hours.
Protection capacity = 0.409 x 24 (hours/day) x 365 (days/year) x 10 years
Protection capacity = 35,828 Ah
Since a single 7.7-kg magnesium anode can deliver 8,556 Ah, the number of
anodes required would be 4.1.
However, in 3,000-ohm-cm soil with a 0.85 V P/S reading a 7.7 kg anode will
only deliver approximately 0.030 A (see performance survey)
The corrected number of anodes would therefore be 0.4 0.03 = 13.3 or 14
anodes to completely protect the footings