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1220 Current Requirements: Voltage Drop in Test Leads
1220 Current Requirements: Voltage Drop in Test Leads
installations will usually be adequate. However, test leads at the quarter points as
well as at the midpoint are recommended where feasible.
Test leads should be installed on all lines at cased road and railroad crossings and at
foreign line crossings where interference is likely.
Additional test leads are required if coating conductivity tests are to be made
(see Section 1700).
1221 Measurements
Coated Lines
On existing pipelines, field tests are desirable to determine the current required for
cathodic protection. For short pipelines, the current required can be determined
directly, as discussed in Section 1700.
The usual procedure for long coated pipelines is to conduct preliminary tests to
determine the coating conductivity of representative sections of the line. These tests
are covered in Section 1700. These tests determine the coating conductivity and
current required for protection, as discussed in Section 1222. Following this prelimi-
nary determination the type of system can be selected (impressed current or
galvanic anode). If a galvanic anode system is to be installed, no further tests are
required until installation of the anodes has started.
For an impressed current system the maximum distance between drain points
(limited by voltage across the coating) can be determined once the coating conduc-
tivity is known. This is covered in Section 1222. As discussed in Section 1230 the
actual drain point spacing is influenced by several other factors. It is normally
considerably less than the theoretical maximum spacing.