ON ORGANIZING FIELD OBSERVATIONS OF STRAY CURRENT FIELDS ON SEA VESSELS

When ships are anchored in harbor, corrosion can develop more intensively than at sea, thus, long anchoring can provide corrosion, damage and sinking of the ships. Hence, it is necessary to actively combat corrosion. To increase the efficiency of anticorrosive activity it is necessary to organize operating control of dominating factors of marine environment influencing corrosion of the ship hulls. These factors are: biocorrosion activity of marine environment; physical and chemical characteristics of water (temperature, salinity, pH, oxygen concentration; stray currents in water areas. The ship crews are obliged to control the protection of the hull against electrocorrosion. The article considers one of possible approaches to solving this problem: using a simplified method of control of stray ac thickness, which is based on application of a cheap portable device for measuring current (multimeter) and a portable electrode made of a brush for electric machines. There are shown the results of field experiments indicating that the offered technique to control the protection of steel hull from electrocorrosion allows crew to measure the controlled parameter (intensity of alternating stray current) adequately. The technique helps to estimate protection of the ship’s hull from electrocorrosion under different conditions of mooring and to recommend a berth place for a ship. These results can be used to assess the performance quality of coastal electrical services. The offered technique can be used when developing the automated control system to protect the ship’s hull from electrocorrosion in lasting standstill.