Hello Gents

I just finished a job on a ship.....I got involved with the generators and an interesting observation was made. There is no neutral on the generator...this is due to a chemical/electrical action (electrolysis).

I was discussing this with one of the ships engineers and he was telling me that this is maritime law and aluminium ships will corrode within 2 years if there is a neutral to the deck but steel ships are OK.

Does anybody care to comment?

Regards
Carl

Hi Carl

My understanding of the problem is that it is due to electrolytic corrosion when the ship is at dock. If the neutral is connected to the structure of the ship, and the neutral is also connected to ground on shore, then when the ship is in dock and connected to the shore supply, there can be an electrolytic corrosion set up. By keeping the structure of the ship isolated from the shore supply, the problem does not occur.

Best regards,

So one part is the anode let say the ship and the other part is the cathode let say the shore side. There is now a potential difference between the two bodies, because we do not have the same earth/neutral and the medium for the reaction is the salt water.

Thanks for the comment Mark appreciate it