Chalk Point Cooling Tower
Services Applied by VCS Engineering
Summary
The Chalk Point Power Station cooling tower located at Aquasco, Maryland utilizes the brackish water from the Chesapeake Bay in the cooling process. As a result, the tower suffers from significant chloride contamination, reinforcing steel corrosion and major concrete damage. VCS Enginnering was hired to design a cathodic protection system to mitigate current and future corrosion activity of the structure’s reinforcing steel. VCS Engineering was also responsible to provide Quality Assurance (QA), as well as oversight and guidance for quality control.
Scope
VCS designed a cathodic protection (CP) system on Cooling Tower 3 to protect the reinforcing steel from corrosion. Cathodic protection was provided by two different types of systems, a galvanic cathodic protection (GCP) system on the supporting X braces and an impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) for the tower shell.
Solution
The GCP system was comprised of stay-in-place fiberglass jackets installed on each of the towers 32 individual X-shaped support columns and activated zinc galvanic anodes which are installed inside each of the jackets. The ICCP system was installed on the tower shell in six equal segments radially and eight zones which start at the base of the tower (zone 1) to top of the tower (zone 8). Each segment of the tower is being monitored using VCS’s StructureView® which allows remote monitoring of the systems. There are a total of 48 zones in the cooling tower which are currently being monitored.
