When it comes to engineering, proactive corrosion prevention is one of those aspects that often go overlooked. The main reason is usually CAPEX constraints and the lack of awareness of the long-term impact of corrosion.
This results in the overlooking of very necessary pre-emptive measures. Measures that can potentially increase the lifespan of any piece of equipment or facility.
Up-front thinking in a Potash Mine design
It All Starts With a Proactive Corrosion Prevention Plan
After carrying out a benchmarking study at other sites, the client in this case had high awareness of the concerns around corrosion before the detailed design even started. They knew that the high corrosion risk from the high concentrations of salt, would jeopardise the durability of the project, by undermining the integrity of multiple critical assets in operation. This, plus the 70 year design life, pushed them to include proactive, thoughtful corrosion control design up-front.
ICE designed an overarching Corrosion Prevention strategy for the mine, and engaged in an asset-by-asset corrosion risk assessment for the implementation of resilient solutions for critical assets (including structures, concrete, piping, mechanical assets, tanks, electrical equipment etc).
QA and QC practices were put into place by creating coating specifications, development of inspections and data collection programs to populate predictive models. ICE also worked with the client to create corrosion-specific input into maintenance plans in the operational readiness phase.
Structural Integrity of Steel Elements
As an example of the in-depth design, protection and corrosion management of the structural elements was a focus and concentrated on several measures:
- Corrosion risk maps for the prediction and tracking of corrosion risk
- Matching of coating specifications to exposure
- Creation of a standardized visual inspection form for steel structures in the process plant
- Collection of quantitative corrosion data in the form of coupons, UT measurements, and several other exposure data
- Population of a coating maintenance model to allow intervention optimisation
Corrosion Management Is Possible!
Waiting until the problems become too big to handle is not a sustainable long-run solution. It is much better and cost-effective to tackle the problems beforehand with sensible, justified corrosion engineering measures. Contact us for more information.
