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02/09/2010
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Abriox has upgraded lightning protection on its remote corrosion monitoring equipment for fuel pipelines, with help from lightning test consultancy Cobham Technical Services.
 The degree of protection of the system against high energy surges has been substantially enhanced by a development exercise incorporating advice on the nature of coupling between lightning power surges and ground-based equipment, and characterisation studies including destructive testing.
Jason Hanlon, Abriox technical director, says that lightning protection has been implemented on its Merlin cathodic protection (CP), telemetry-based monitor – one of the most widely used field devices for remotely monitoring the anti-corrosion CP systems installed on pipelines, storage tanks and other buried metal infrastructure.
"Pipelines are a significant attractor for lightning and, in some regions of the world, strikes can occur frequently. We've always had lightning protection on our corrosion monitor, but the only feedback we ever got on how it performed in the real world tended to be when a burnt-out unit arrived back from the field," explains Hanlon.
"How much energy was present, what the shape of the energy surge was, whether it arrived directly or indirectly, remained a mystery. We decided that it would be a good idea to better understand the risk by talking with lightning experts."
Cobham Technical Services carried out an initial destructive test at its test facility in Abingdon, and concluded that some of the lightning surge protection devices originally selected for use with Abriox's Merlin did not perform as per the manufacturer's datasheet.
To speed its new design, Hanlon says Abriox constructed its own simple low-power generator to test switching times and clamping characteristics, but then took the new design to Cobham for performance characterisation against lightning pulses.
"With Cobham's help, we now know exactly what our lightning protection system is capable of," comments Hanlon. "It's impossible to protect against every conceivable lightning strike, but we know that our equipment will be resilient when faced with the majority of the real-world energy surges that could be encountered."
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Author
Brian Tinham
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