Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP) is a rigid pipe designed to take optimum advantage of the
tensile strength of steel and of the compressive strength and corrosion inhibiting properties of concrete
and is frequently used for water transmission. PCCP consists of a steel cylinder embedded in a
concrete core, which is helically wrapped with high-strength, hard-drawn wire after curing. The wire is
embedded in thick cement slurry and coated with a dense cement mortar.
While the cement mortar and additional coatings usually protect the prestressing wires from corrosion,
in certain circumstances chlorides can diffuse into the mortar and reach the wires. Therefore PCCP
transmission pipelines can also be protected by CP systems to mitigate the risk of corrosion damage
when chlorides are high in the soil.
This paper describes a computer modeling study which was designed to determine the protection
provided by a CP system, to evaluate different design options, and to optimize the design. Results will
be presented showing the model predictions for the different cases considered.
Keywords: cathodic protection, PCCP, computer modeling.