SEDL / STP / STP1013-EB / STP19712S

Statistical Analysis of Soil Characteristics to Predict Mean Time to Corrosion Failure of Underground Metallic Structures

Bushman, JB
Vice president of Research and Development, Corrpro Companies, Inc., Medina, OH

Mehalick, TE
Manager, Special Projects, Corrpro Companies, Inc., Medina, OH

Pages: 12    Published: Jan 1989

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Abstract

In past years, the corrosion engineer has not been able to assess the influences of various soil characteristics on the rate of corrosion of buried ferrous metal structures. In 1979, the application of multivariate statistical analysis techniques to evaluate a broad range of measurements of soil and structure data was first used successfully to predict a mean time to corrosion failure (MTCF) for underground storage tank systems (USTSs). More recently, similar procedures have been developed to determine the MTCF for discrete sections of cast iron water pipelines (CIWPs). This paper will summarize the methodologies used to predict MTCF of both USTSs and CIWPs. It is anticipated that these methodologies may be more broadly applied to other buried metal structures, including oil and gas transmission and distribution systems, steel-reinforced concrete pipelines, etc.