BARNACLE FOULING RESISTANCE TEST OF COATED STEEL PLATES UNDER STATIC IMMERSION AT AN INDUSTRIAL SHRIMP FARM AT PUNA ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

INITIAL CONDITIONS:

The black control steel test plate, on the left side of figure 1, was coated with a typical anti-corrosion coating used by the shrimp farm owner at the pumping station equipment.
The white steel test plate on the right hand side is coated with Warren Epoxy.
The objective of the test was to check after 3 months of total immersion (about 2 ft in depth) at the shrimp farm seawater supply channels, the condition of the coatings after barnacles fouling attack.

The control plate coating did not survive the barnacles fouling attack. it presented symptoms of an apparent coating breakdown by mechanism of osmotic blistering and disbondment (a.k.a. osmotic gradient action), and corrosion.
As noted in figures 2 and 3 below, our steel plate coated with the Warren Epoxy easily survived the 3 months of barnacle fouling resistance testing.
Once removed from the seawater (shrimp farm) supply channel, the white plate was hydrowashed with 3,000 psi water. The barnacles easily disbonded from the coating.
The Warren Epoxy coated plate was found to be in very good structural condition. the steel plate had no signs of corrosion or coating failure.
This test was considered a very successful because it shows the resilience and armor type protection provided by our outstanding the warren epoxy coating against a severe barnacles attack.
The subject test results supports the long term life expectancy of the structural repair made in concrete pile foundation’s tidal zone region (Ref. Proj. #13). Furthermore, it is important to note that our Warren Epoxy alone can easily protect the pile foundations tidal zone areas from erosion and corrosion. It is assumed that structural capacity repair of the subject pile area is not required.