Corrosion and impressed current cathodic protection of copper-based materials using a bimetallic rotating cylinder electrode (BRCE) G. Kear a , B.D. Barker b , K.R. Stokes c,d , F.C. Walsh e, * a Science and Engineering Services, Materials Section, Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) Ltd., Wellington 6220, New Zealand b Applied Electrochemistry Group, Centre for Chemistry, University of Portsmouth PO1 2DT, United Kingdom c Dstl Porton Down, Physical Sciences Department, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, United Kingdom d Surface Engineering Group, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom e Electrochemical Engineering Group, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom Received 12 January 2004; accepted 24 August 2004 Abstract A bimetallic rotating cylinder electrode (having individual electrode areas of 10cm 2 and rotating at 200–1400rpm) has been used to examine the corrosion and protection characteris- tics of copper/nickel aluminium bronze and 90–10 copper–nickel/nickel aluminium bronze galvanic couples in filtered seawater at 25 °C. The flow-influenced electrochemistry of the sys- tems was determined using zero resistance ammetry, corrosion potential measurements and a potential step current transient technique. In each case, the galvanic corrosion potential and corrosion rate displayed a Reynolds number dependency where mass transport control of the anodic dissolution reaction partially controlled the reaction rate. Bimetallic impressed cur- rent cathodic protection (ICCP) has also been demonstrated for a range of applied protection potentials and Reynolds numbers. A comparison has been made between the directly meas- ured bimetallic ICCP current demand and that determined from independent, single-metal 0010-938X/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2004.08.013 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 2380 598 752; fax: +44 2380 598 754. E-mail addresses: garethkear@branz.co.nz (G. Kear), f.c.walsh@soton.ac.uk (F.C. Walsh). Corrosion Science 47 (2005) 1694–1705 www.elsevier.com/locate/corsci