Latest News
I would also like to welcome you to this first issue of 2021. Although the year hasn’t started well, both for staff and businesses, there is hope on the horizon.
Due to the lockdown at the end of last year,
there has been a less news of our industry, and fewer local branch meetings, so to counteract this, I have included four technical articles for you. Two deal with pipeline coatings and inspection, the theme of this issue, together with an article on passive fire protection (PFP), and a case study about reinforced concrete corrosion.
The first pipeline article describes the effect of stockpiling FBF coated pipe in Canada for the Keystone pipeline project, and its suitability for use after 10 years. However, it has just been announced that the new administration in the USA has cancelled the pipeline permit, so maybe the coated pipes will have to be stored even longer. The second themed article from Australia gives an introduction to the use of “Big Data” to determine the condition of active pipelines and their fitness for service. It is hoped to bring you an article covering the actual use of this technique on a pipeline later in the year. The reinforced concrete corrosion article is the second part dealing with cooling towers, and covers the use of the techniques described in the first part, in an actual case. Finally, the PFP article looks at the use of reinforced mesh.
Remember it is your magazine, so let me know if there are topics you would like covered, and remember to submit any technical questions you have for answer by our panel of experts I can be contacted at, brianpce@aol.com.
Brian Goldie, Consulting Editor
Latest News
Welcome to the first edition of Corrosion Management for 2021 and my first column as President. I was honoured to be given this opportunity at our last AGM in November and I have big shoes to fill! First and foremost, I want to thank Gareth Hinds for his outstanding contributions as President for the last 2-years – how quickly the time goes by. Gareth oversaw many important changes to the Institute such as our new brand, which I love, implementing a digital and social media strategy, launching new and updated training courses, and the transition to our new agreement with the Society of Operational Engineers. These are the highlights. However, what has impressed me so much about Gareth is his willingness to be involved in so many day-to-day activities. He has led by example with his time, energy and enthusiasm – he epitomises the saying that if you want to get something done give it to someone who’s busy. Gareth thank you for all you have done for us.
In his last column Gareth also noted that the strength of our Institute is our people – I couldn’t agree more. So many of you give generously with your “spare” time and support. As the new President I’ve been astonished at how dedicated our members are. The list is almost endless and it is impossible to recognise everyone in these columns and so much of your work it is unpublicised. But it is recognised and I offer my sincere thanks to all of you who help make our Institute so special. Should you be that rare individual who isn’t currently involved with our Institute, but would like to be, please do reach out to me at my email address below – we always have opportunities to help us improve. On the subject of improving if you have any ideas of new things we should be doing, or could improve, please also let me know via email – but be careful – you may find I ask for your help to bring your idea to reality!
Several people have asked me what do I want to achieve as the President of ICorr? This is something I’ve been thinking about during my time as vice-president and I should start by saying my primary goal is not to mess anything up and making sure our members get the support and opportunities they want. Beyond that I have four things I’d like to focus on:
1. Governance of ICorr
We have a lot of very sensible rules and bye-laws which we follow to ensure we meet the standards required by the charities commission and the engineering council. There are many of our members who quietly work behind the scenes to ensure that this happens, and I’d specifically like to thank David Harvey for his dedicated work in this area. I have been thinking that it would be good to form a Governance committee to pull all of these activities together to support David.
2. The ICorr Training Offer
We have world leading training in many areas of corrosion and corrosion control and it’s exciting to see the potential opportunities that are emerging for these to be delivered beyond the UK through both ICorr and our training partners of Correx, IMechE and Corrodere. David Mobbs has begun to outline how all of our training courses fit together and how they help develop corrosion professionals. I want to support this activity so we can offer a holistic corrosion training programme worldwide that provides a clear pathway to becoming a fully rounded corrosion specialists.
3. Balancing ICorr’s mission to promote corrosion understanding and control with our business strategy
As I noted earlier, our training courses are very popular – even with the problems brought by Covid-19. I’ve found it quite easy to become obsessed with how many courses we run and how the income can be used to further the goals of our institute. But it’s not only about money – we have a mission to serve our industry and especially our members. So we need to strike the right balance. Thankfully the Trustees and Council are alert to this balancing act and I want to support this.
4. Growth and Support of Our Overseas Membership
Corrosion is a global issue and we are seeing increased requests for membership from outside of the UK which is fantastic. We need to identify how we can continue this growth and support our overseas members.
These are my thoughts, but I’d love to hear from you if you agree or if you think there are other things we should be focusing on – again please email me.
I look forward to hearing from you and our journey together.
Bill Hedges, Institute of Corrosion President
Email: president@icorr.org
Latest News, London Branch
On the 11 February 2021 London Branch had a virtual event. This talk presented the basic function of solid-state DC decouplers used in conjunction with cathodic protection (CP) systems and their common pipeline applications, including AC Mitigation and isolation joint protection.
Download PDF of the presentation
Aberdeen Branch, Latest News
The Institute of Corrosion (ICorr) Aberdeen branch would like to invite you (or your colleague) to give a presentation during our next 2021/2022 Session. Please note that currently all the ICorr Aberdeen branch meetings are held virtually however, depending on the COVID19 restrictions during the next session we will try to move back to the face to face meetings although both options will be available based on the speakers’ preference. The events normally are held at 6 pm on the last Tuesday of the months from September 2021 till May 2022, excluding December 2021.
Topics on Pressure system, pipelines, structural integrity management with regards to the material selection, welding, corrosion control and monitoring, inspection techniques and data analytics are acceptable. Past case studies, project experiences and emerging technologies have proved popular and interesting to members.
Our event attendees (members and non-members) include students, technicians, technologists, engineers, scientists, researchers, managers, directors and other professionals mainly in the oil and gas, power generation and manufacturing industries. We would also publish a report of technical presentations in our Corrosion Management magazine and publish on ICorr Headquarters and ICorr Aberdeen websites. A recording of the event (if conducted online) will be uploaded to our YouTube channel.
If interested, please complete the Template including your proposed speaker’s name, role and company, short biography of the speaker(s) and the proposed presentation title and abstract to the ICorr Aberdeen Branch Vice Chair, Hooman Takhtechian, via htakhtechian@oceaneering.com and please also copy in icorrabz@gmail.com in your submission. All the submitted presentations will be subject to ICorr Aberdeen Committee review and the successful ones will be scheduled into ICorr Aberdeen 2021/2022 Technical Events Programme.
Please note that the deadline of the submission is 30/04/2021. ICorr Aberdeen committee will approach the successful presenters in May 2021 to work out the event programme and announce it by June 2021. Please be highlighted that an earliest submission of your proposed presentation is highly preferred.
Please find more information of ICorr and ICorr Aberdeen Branch as follows:
The Institute of Corrosion (ICorr) is a professional society and registered charity that is committed to the development and improvement of corrosion and related disciplines. Please visit ICorr’s website and Aberdeen branch for more information.
All the information of ICorr Aberdeen Branch are available on our website. Please note that all the past technical presentation slides have been uploaded to ICorr Aberdeen’s website. The recordings of the virtual meeting are uploaded
Finally, if you would like to join ICorr Aberdeen Group to receive ICorr Aberdeen event communications timely, typically at ~3 emails/month, please send an email to icorrabz@gmail.com. Alternatively join ICorr Aberdeen on LinkedIn for all the branch updates.
Many thanks for your support to ICorr. ICorr Aberdeen Branch look forward to your soonest submission.
Latest News
We have been involved in a very interesting piece of work with Highways England in the UK over the last year which has been looking at ways to improve the management of post-tensioned bridges, particularly with respect to finding and preventing tendon corrosion at an early stage. This has covered, amongst other things, reviews of skills, standards and procedures, assurance practices and available monitoring technologies. However nothing identified to date has the potential to transform the way we detect and measure corrosion in steel structural elements buried in concrete in such a way that we eliminate unpleasant surprises and the need for unplanned and emergency measures.
Highways England is therefore seeking suggestions for new research ideas with the potential to transform the way we detect and measure corrosion in steel structural elements buried in concrete. The aim is to make this a reliable and automated process such that data on corrosion of all buried steel elements in a bridge can be captured, stored and used to facilitate timely maintenance decisions. The intention therefore is to surface fresh ideas that are likely to necessitate new lines of research, rather than looking for incremental improvements to existing techniques. There is potential, although not guaranteed, for direct funding from Highways England for ideas with great promise, or at least strong backing from them when approaching other funding agencies.
The call is not limited to UK institutions, and technologies from outside of traditional engineering circles would be most welcome if applicable and transferrable.
If you are interested – or are aware of individuals that might – please have a look at the call for research ideas and give me a call Chris Mundell on +44 1454 662074 or +44 7823 537058 or respond directly using the online form within the document.
Asset Management Transformation Project Documentation
