Major Research Development of the performance evaluation method in protective coating for marine structures

The combination of two types of prevention methods, namely cathodic protection and protective coating, has been used for marine steel structures, ensuring their long-term durability. Regarding the protective coating method, deterioration characteristics including expected durable years have been clarified from the past exposure test results. However, methods of checking the performance of each protective coating method at the design stage, methods of evaluating current protective performance at the maintenance stage, and methods of predicting future situations have not yet been established.
 

Maintenance costs remain high and there are not enough technicians, so more efficient methods of maintaining the above social capital urgently need to be developed.
 

In this theme, we are working on establishing the following methods: a method to check the performance of each protective coating method at the design stage, a method to evaluate the current protective performance at the maintenance stage, and a method to predict the future situation.
 

Investigation (1): We studied the deterioration mechanism of the petrolatum coating method and conducted accelerated deterioration tests to establish a method for evaluating the performance of petrolatum material, and organized information on the factors that affect the deterioration process. We then narrowed down the influential factors based on our findings and started conducting outdoor exposure tests.

Outdoor exposure tests to establish a method for evaluating the performance of anti-corrosion petrolatum material
(after one month of exposure to the marine atmosphere and the tidal-environment)