Muhammad Wasim

By Muhammad Wasim and Shahrukh Shoaib

Corrosive soils are responsible for the deterioration of buried underground utilities such as buried steel pipes. Frequent pipe failures are reported due to corrosive soil globally. Although soil’s corrosion phenomenon has been understood and identified long time ago, pipe failures due to corrosive soil are uncontrollable and unavoidable despite the use of protective coatings and techniques such as cathodic protection. Therefore, it is essential to review the causes of soil’s corrosivity for the protection of steel pipes. This chapter demonstrates the influence of varying moisture and chloride contents of soils on the corrosion of coated and uncoated steel pipes. Carbon steel specimens (coated and uncoated) were buried in soils of 20, 40, 60, and 80 wt.% moisture content, respectively, while the chloride concentration introduced in soil was 0, 5, and 10 wt.%, respectively. Through the analysis of experiments, it is revealed that the corrosion rate of pipes buried in soil increases with increase in moisture content up to critical moisture and chloride values. The influence of soil’s moisture and chloride on the corrosion products formed on steel pipes was investigated and comprehensively explained in this chapter. Authors believe that the knowledge presented in this chapter can be applied to other structures or utilities buried in corrosive soils.

Part of the book: Metals in Soil