A GLOBAL PROBLEM

摘要

Ted Huck, Matcor, USA, discusses attenuation deficit disorder and pipeline rehabilitation. Around the world, the pipeline industry is seeing a growing number of 'attenuation deficit disorder' outbreaks along older pipelines. This is not a disease or medical condition afflicting pipeline personnel, but is a reference to a growing global problem with pipeline cathodic protection (CP) systems, which are affected by older coatings that are failing: Attenuation is the technical term to describe the reduction in the strength of a signal transmission over long distances. In the context of CP, this refers to how far current will be able to effectively travel from a CP anode location to protect the length of the pipeline. When CP current cannot attenuate, it becomes very difficult to effectively supply CP along the length of the pipeline and, for too many older pipelines with ageing coating systems, the existing CP systems simply cannot distribute current (attenuate) effectively over the length of the pipeline. They suffer from attenuation deficit disorder.