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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Summary

Steel is a common component of the nation’s infrastructure, and steel corrosion costs the United States an estimated 3–4 percent of its gross domestic product annually. Infrastructure failure due to steel corrosion can result in loss of life, destruction of property, damage to the environment, disruption of energy transport, and major economic losses. Steel is composed of iron mixed with metallic and nonmetallic elements (e.g., manganese and carbon, respectively) in various amounts to create alloys for different purposes. It is often buried in the earth as a primary construction material (as in fuel or water pipelines) or as a support element (as in structural foundations or retaining structures). When buried, steel is often in direct contact with soil (i.e., unconsolidated earth materials composed of inorganic solids, liquids, and gases), rock, engineered fills, and grouts and can be exposed to complex and corrosive environments that are difficult to characterize.

The corrosion of steel occurs predominantly through an electrochemical process involving loss of electrons at one site on the steel (the anodic site where oxidation occurs) and gain of electrons at another site on the steel (a cathodic site where reduction occurs). An electrolyte in contact with both sites conducts ions between anode and cathode. In the case of buried steel, the soil, rock, or grout with which the steel is in contact is the electrolyte. Properties such as moisture content, grain size and mineralogy, compaction, pore space, pH, soluble salt content, sulfide content, dissolved oxygen content, temperature, organic content, microbiology, redox potential, and electrical properties such as resistivity are either conducive to or indicative of the corrosivity of the electrolyte. The mechanisms of steel corrosion are well understood theoretically, but the complexity of the subsurface makes it difficult to predict with certainty where, when, by which mechanisms, and at what rates corrosion will occur, and therefore to determine the most effective infrastructure design and corrosion protection measures. When corrosion occurs, it often is difficult to determine whether it is the result of inaccurate site characterization and prediction of environmental corrosivity, poor choice of steel design or protection, material defects, poor construction or quality control practices, insufficient monitoring or maintenance, changes in subsurface conditions, or some combination of these factors.

There are two general approaches to protect buried steel against corrosion, although not all applications fit cleanly into these approaches. The first is the “corrosion allowance” approach in which steel is designed with extra cross-sectional thickness to compensate for expected loss of steel to corrosion over a designated performance period. This is the practice applied most often in structural foundations, earth retaining structures, dams, and tunnels. This report refers to the industries that apply this approach as the “geo-civil industries.” The geo-civil industries attempt to characterize the corrosivity of the subsurface and design the infrastructure accordingly;

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

once buried, steel undergoes little monitoring. The second approach is a “corrosion avoidance” approach, which is applied, for example, by the oil and gas pipeline industries. Corrosion is prevented or minimized through such means as coatings and cathodic protection (CP). For practical reasons, the oil and gas pipeline industries rely less on site characterization (pipelines can be hundreds of kilometers long) and more on monitoring the effectiveness of the protection measures. Regardless of the corrosion protection approach applied, the same corrosion mechanisms impact the steel.

THE STUDY CHARGE

The American Society of Civil Engineers, Association for Mechanically Stabilized Earth, Federal Highway Administration, International Association of Foundation Drilling, National Science Foundation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the presidents of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) requested an interdisciplinary ad hoc committee of the National Academies to summarize mechanisms for corrosion of steel within earth materials. The committee was asked to assess current practices for characterizing the subsurface environment for corrosivity and to assess the use, efficacy, and uncertainties of methods used to predict, identify, and monitor corrosion of steel in earth materials at existing and new infrastructure. The committee organized a workshop of experts to investigate field, laboratory, and modeling methods for characterizing corrosion of steel buried in earth materials and new developments in prediction and monitoring corrosion in earth applications and environments. This report describes the findings of the committee, identifies gaps in knowledge, and recommends the research needed to improve the long-term performance of steel in earth applications. The report focuses on steel buried in and in direct contact with soil and discusses generalized practices of the geo-civil and oil and gas industries. The report does not provide “best practices” or discuss corrosion of steel in concrete (except reference to cementitious grouts), steel in marine environments, or interior pipeline corrosion. Stainless steels are mentioned only briefly.

Early in its deliberations, the multidisciplinary committee recognized little common language use surrounding key issues related to corrosion, corrosion rates, corrosivity, and corrosion protection. The committee learned that important terms are defined differently across sectors and even within sectors. Practices and guidance vary greatly between sectors, and knowledge transfer does not occur often or easily across sectors. As a result, the committee found it necessary, at a primer level, to identify and define relevant types of steel, the fundamental mechanisms of steel corrosion, the different subsurface conditions that affect corrosivity, and the range of buried-steel applications and protection measures to develop a common basis of understanding. The first chapters of this report provide similar primer-level material and provide definitions of terms that are inconsistent across industries.

OVERARCHING CONCLUSIONS

Site characterization and infrastructure design and modeling practices are often driven by standards used for efficiency and reproducibility but that were likely derived from practices developed for different purposes and then repurposed for convenience. Many of those standards are not informed by empirically based knowledge about how given conditions affect corrosivity, and they generally do not consider how the combined effects of subsurface physical, chemical, and microbiological properties of the complex subsurface environment affect corrosivity. Researchers in industry and academe often rely on limited corrosion-related data that were collected and analyzed in the mid-twentieth century. Compounding the uncertainties already inherent in the methodologies is the inconsistent use of vocabulary between industries—and disciplines within industries—and that data are not routinely shared between industries. The different approaches adopted by the geo-civil and oil and gas pipeline industries have resulted in intellectual and practical silos that have led to parallel—or even competing—research initiatives and foci.

Significantly improving understanding of corrosion mechanisms and rates for buried steel will require multidisciplinary approaches to investigation informed by an inclusive vocabulary that is easily translated among disciplines. Comprehensive long-term multivariate experiments are needed that will allow collection of observational data regarding the individual and combined contributions of subsurface properties on environmental corrosivity,

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

corrosion mechanisms, and corrosion rates. Reliable, accessible, and searchable databases—designed to protect proprietary information—could be established to house data collected through that experimentation. Decision support systems (DSSs) for site characterization program design and risk-informed decision making can be developed to inform future characterization, design, modeling, and infrastructure management decisions. Advanced data analytics should be systematically applied to presently available data to better understand important statistical correlations between properties that affect corrosivity and resulting corrosion rates. Methods such as machine learning could later be utilized as data repositories are developed and populated with robust and complete datasets.

IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS

A multidisciplinary approach that combines, for example, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, earth science, material science, hydrology, metallurgy, corrosion engineering and modeling, geophysics, geochemistry, and microbiology is necessary to understand corrosion of steel in subsurface environments. However, there is no common vocabulary for corrosion among those fields. As a result, there can be miscommunication between practitioners that can result in uninformed decisions (e.g., “corrosion potential” is used by geotechnical professionals to refer to the possibility of corrosion, whereas the term has a specific electrochemical meaning in corrosion engineering). A common lexicon with more technically precise terminology will increase the effectiveness of communication and collaboration between disciplines and industries and facilitate work toward common goals: better understanding of the corrosivity of a subsurface environment, better prediction of corrosion and corrosion rates, and more effective design, construction, and management of buried steel infrastructure.

Recommendation 1: Standards-making bodies from different industries, in collaboration with the public agencies with responsibilities related to buried steel infrastructure, and researchers interested in understanding and preventing buried steel corrosion should develop a common lexicon with precise definitions associated with corrosion of steel and the characterization and monitoring of subsurface environments in which steel is buried or placed.

Because standards-making bodies already influence practices in the public and private sectors, their collaborative development and dissemination of a common lexicon would help the technical communities that they serve incorporate the vocabulary into their work. Professional societies (e.g., the Association for Materials Protection and Performance, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and ASTM International) might collaborate to develop this lexicon. Agreeing on a lexicon will create opportunities to advance knowledge and innovations across disciplines or move research into practice.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND LONGITUDINAL EXPERIMENTATION

Engineers who conduct site characterization investigations are rarely knowledgeable about corrosion mechanisms, and corrosion engineers are often unfamiliar with the complexity and heterogeneity of the soil–groundwater–gas electrolyte that complicates realistic modeling of subsurface corrosion. Few engineers are familiar with, for example, the importance of microbially influenced corrosion (MIC) or of the geophysics that might be used to characterize the subsurface. Standards have been developed and are applied based on, for example, resistivity techniques, but often without an understanding of the significance of the results (e.g., that resistivity is not a measure of soil corrosivity but rather an indicator of possible corrosivity). Multidisciplinary research efforts are required to build the knowledge necessary to advance practice to more accurately predict corrosion and aid management capabilities (e.g., to move from overly simplistic corrosion prediction models to more sophisticated modeling techniques). Investigation and identification of appropriate design and management of steel require the combined specialty knowledge of structural and geotechnical engineers, hydrogeologists, geophysicists, CP specialists, corrosion engineers, microbial testing experts, and those with expertise in chemical analysis of fill and soil materials.

There is a need for public agencies, industry groups, and academe with interest in or responsibilities related to corrosion of buried steel to formalize collaborative efforts to identify and facilitate multidisciplinary research

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

for improved prediction of, protection against, and monitoring of the corrosion of buried steel. Primary goals of such collaborative multidisciplinary efforts include increasing understanding of how multiple ground conditions contribute to corrosivity and corrosion mechanisms and translating fundamental research discoveries into practice. Multidisciplinary research in corrosion science would expose researchers and practitioners to new concepts and provide information to synthesize collective and new knowledge about subsurface corrosivity, corrosion mechanisms, and prediction of corrosion rates. Topics to be explored include the combined effects of different soil properties on corrosivity; better ways to characterize the subsurface by combining geophysical, geochemical, hydrological, and microbiological techniques; and the ground response to a changing climate and its effects on corrosivity (given that increased temperatures will accelerate corrosion-dependent chemical reactions and will change the distribution of microorganisms and their rates of activity). Multidisciplinary teams of experts including geotechnical and structural engineers, metallurgists, materials scientists, hydrologists, geochemists, geophysicists, microbiologists, and others will need to collaboratively design and implement the necessary research.

Data from statistically sound, long-term multivariate experiments that involve observations from steel buried in the subsurface make quantifying the fundamental relationships that control corrosion rates possible. Uncertainties in the conclusions drawn from analysis of data in existing databases are considerable because soil environments related to those data were not thoroughly characterized, burial depths and exposure times varied, climate conditions were reported as averages, many soil properties were measured off-site, and the statistical designs associated with the original experiments were weak. Needed is controlled longitudinal research that quantifies the conditions that lead to increased corrosivity, that identify corrosion mechanisms under those conditions, and that allow prediction of corrosion rates.

Recommendation 2: Coordinated groups of multidisciplinary researchers, supported through commitments from private- and public-sector organizations and agencies with interest in or responsibilities related to buried steel infrastructure, should conduct comprehensive, long-term experiments to quantify corrosion rates and mechanisms associated with multiple variables on steel buried both in controlled and in carefully characterized natural subsurface conditions.

Two general mechanisms could facilitate such multidisciplinary research: (1) the organization of formal partnerships (e.g., between industry and academe, between private- and public-sector entities, and between government agencies and academic research facilities); and (2) multidisciplinary research centers that can invest specifically in research that can be scaled up to technologies applicable in practice. Both models could provide opportunities to engage practitioners in research, expose researchers to “real-life” problems, and enhance educational and professional networking opportunities for students.

Experimental results could contribute to a reliable reference database useful to (1) identify the most relevant properties of the subsurface for corrosion rates, (2) quantify the synergistic effects of subsurface properties, (3) assess current corrosion-rate predictive models, and (4) develop corrosion models with less uncertainty in their predictive capabilities. Experiments need to allow multiple observations in the first 5 years to capture changes in corrosion rates when they are greatest, and observations 25 years or longer to capture how those rates attenuate over the service life of infrastructure. The investigations should include laboratory-based experiments with controlled initial and boundary conditions and field-based experiments with extensive soil and hydrologic characterization and monitoring. Studies on buried plain carbon steel are needed, as are experiments on galvanized, aluminized, and polymer coatings, of which the long-term behaviors when buried are not well known.

The experiments should be designed to extract the influences of physical and chemical soil properties, soil water and gaseous phases, and soil spatial variations, and to capture the soil microbiology. Different approaches applied during the same experiments—for example, monitoring electrochemical testing and exhuming coupons for destructive testing—would benefit comparisons and integration. There should also be experiments that document the effects of climate change on corrosivity and corrosion of buried steel infrastructure. Properties relating to the risk of MIC should also be quantified and monitored throughout the study. Robust results from long-term experiments will enable designers, owners, operators, and managers to focus resources on assessing and monitoring the

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

spatial and temporal variations of those properties with the largest impact on corrosivity and corrosion rates at a given site, allowing more efficient design, construction, and management of safer and more resilient infrastructure.

DATA ANALYTICS

Existing characterization approaches do not attempt to weight the corrosivity-inducing effects of all relevant subsurface properties, and they do not describe comprehensively the synergies between subsurface properties. Data analytical techniques (e.g., cluster analysis or Bayesian theory) can be applied to currently available datasets and to new longitudinal experiment data to investigate relationships among properties, and between properties and corrosion rates. Until data from longitudinal and multivariate experiments are available, systematic examination of existing data may be useful to identify statistically important relations among various properties and with corrosion and corrosion rates. Advanced analytical techniques can be applied to identify previously unrecognized relevant synergies between different subsurface properties and their relationships to corrosivity.

Recommendation 3: Researchers should use advanced data science techniques on available and new data to determine systematically the statistically important contributions of individual and combined subsurface properties to corrosivity in different subsurface environments.

Thousands of published papers describe failures of steel infrastructure and laboratory and field testing conducted under varying conditions. The collection of independent observations has not improved predictive capability. Experimental studies that have measured corrosion on buried steel across a number of climates have not been systematically “mined” for data to assess the relationship between, for example, temperature and corrosion and corrosion rates, or for their relationships to MIC. In addition to understanding the relationship of properties and corrosivity, data analytical techniques may help to identify relevant subsurface properties that are not traditionally used to characterize corrosivity. The collective data for MIC, for example, are extensive and could be systematically examined for relationships directly related to MIC (e.g., assimilable nutrients, relationships between electron donors or electron acceptors and aggressive or inhibiting anions). The results will suggest integrated approaches to predict MIC based on the total environment and not just the identification of specific putative microorganisms. Improved estimates of corrosion rates will result from analytical approaches that (1) consider all relevant subsurface properties, (2) apply data-driven weighting factors to relevant subsurface properties, and (3) calculate the synergies between the relevant subsurface properties.

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

The technical communities and organizations with interest in or responsibilities associated with corrosion of buried steel lack a framework that can tie available multivariate information and guide prioritization of actions using risk-informed approaches. Simplified and empirical methods for modeling metal loss, corrosion rates, and performance of protection systems have limitations and are only applicable for particular sets of conditions. They do not assist in prioritizing actions and investments based on the likelihood and severity of negative impacts (i.e., risk-based decision making). Without a common database of reported case histories of failures, it is difficult to validate models and assess past performance of given protection systems in given environments.

Few protocols in any industry guide proper data collection for characterizing corrosivity and corrosion modeling, and decisions based on those protocols do not benefit from the knowledge or innovations from other sectors. A DSS is a tool that guides decision makers through alternatives. DSSs can be two-dimensional flowcharts or complex digital systems connected to multiple-input databases leading decision makers through numerous options.1 A robust DSS will help reduce uncertainty in decision making by formalizing standard practices and presenting

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1 GeoTechTools (geotechtools.org) is an example of a DSS developed by the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, deployed by the Federal Highway Administration, and is now hosted by the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

logical and reproducible sequences of decisions based on existing data. They could be particularly helpful in decision areas that rely on large volumes of data combined with predictive modeling. Many existing simple DSSs guide the choice of just a few standard tests from specific industry groups based on a few observed site conditions. A more comprehensive characterization framework and DSS is needed that informs decisions related to subsurface characterization appropriate for multiple combinations of subsurface properties and informed by standards from multiple sectors and industry groups.

Recommendation 4: Standards-setting bodies should collaborate with state and federal agencies, industry, and academe to create and maintain two decision support systems (DSSs):

  1. a DSS that guides site characterization and allows selection from among a comprehensive set of characterization tests that are appropriate for temporally and spatially variable surface and subsurface conditions; and
  2. a DSS that uses risk-informed decision making to guide corrosion management practices.

A site characterization DSS will guide characterization design to capture how lateral, vertical, and temporal subsurface variations affect the individual and combined site-specific subsurface characteristics that control corrosivity. Uncertainties in characterization results will be captured, and guidance regarding errors in modeling given disparities between measurement scales and the scales at which corrosion initiates on the steel surface will be provided. A DSS for practitioners should outline the minimum field- and laboratory-based information needed to design a site characterization program. Guidance related to spatial and temporal sampling frequencies given the natural setting of the site, land use, infrastructure life cycle, surface and groundwater hydrology, and atmospheric conditions will be provided based on the combined knowledge, tools, and standards of multiple industries. The DSS should then inform decisions regarding additional characterization necessary to reduce uncertainties to acceptable levels for modeling.

To make development of this DSS a practical exercise, initial focus should be on subsurface properties most commonly utilized for characterization of corrosivity (e.g., moisture content, resistivity, pH, chlorides, and sulfates), and then expand to promising technologies and less commonly measured properties (e.g., sulfides, microbial-related properties, and redox potential). The system should include both laboratory- and field-based methods and should distinguish which laboratory tests are intended to replicate field conditions versus those that do not. The DSS should continually evolve as understanding of the multivariate controls on corrosivity increases.

As the characterization DSS is developed, a second DSS should be developed based on risk-informed decision making regarding management actions and investments related to corrosion. This second DSS should be developed and maintained in parallel or in concert with the characterization DSS so that it can be informed by outputs from the characterization DSS (including present and future uncertainties about the environment in which the steel is buried). The DSS could assist decisions regarding choice of model to identify the choice of a protection system or the amount of steel needed to compensate for steel loss for a particular site, the depth of burial, specific design details, and other factors. Corrosion management decisions regarding design and modeling for new infrastructure, and the modeling and monitoring of existing infrastructure, could also benefit from the DSS.

The DSS should be interactive and guide decisions based on selected inputs. It should present a comprehensive list of monitoring techniques using names and descriptions drawn from a common lexicon and should guide decisions regarding monitoring techniques depending on a number of inputs, including the variable to be monitored (coating defects, corrosion rate, CP effectiveness), the depth and dimensions of the infrastructure, and the risk associated with failure. This will require coordinated input, planning, and action of all agencies and organizations with interest in or responsibilities associated with corrosion of buried steel. These groups will need to develop a framework that is able to tie available multivariate information and guide prioritization of actions using risk-informed approaches. The DSS would support better decision making by small companies (e.g., small water utilities) that may not have expertise in all areas and would assist the geo-civil industries in improving asset management.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

INDIRECT OBSERVATION

It is not feasible to monitor hundreds of kilometers of pipelines or to repeatedly expose geo-civil steel infrastructure for direct monitoring. It is also not feasible or possible to quantify all the properties relevant to corrosivity for entire infrastructure systems, and certainly not continuously for the infrastructure performance period. Indirect observation through surface monitoring and opportunistic data collection could inform where localized site-specific monitoring is warranted, and results could be used to build a database to inform future research and infrastructure-related decision making.

Recommendation 5: Private- and public-sector infrastructure owners should monitor the land surface for changes that could alter subsurface corrosivity and determine whether localized monitoring of subsurface properties is warranted to maintain infrastructure performance and safety. Surface changes to be monitored include but are not limited to changes in land, land use, and atmospheric conditions that affect surface and groundwater flow, and any asset management decisions by colocated infrastructure managers that might affect subsurface hydrology, geochemistry, microbiology, or the production of stray currents.

Until corrosivity, corrosion, and corrosion rates can be directly measured, infrastructure managers will rely on indirect measurements to estimate corrosivity and corrosion rates. Because changes on the land surface can affect surface and groundwater flow, permeability, soil saturation, soil and water chemistries, subsurface temperatures, and other characteristics that affect corrosivity, monitoring surface changes is a cost-effective early indicator of possible detrimental subsurface change and could indicate where direct measurements are appropriate.

Surface monitoring should include monitoring changes in

  • Land use (including upgradient), installation of pavements, large foundations, or other underground structures, and installation of surface, subsurface, or aerial transmission or pipelines that may produce stray currents;
  • Land cover, such as transition from rural to urban, and changes in vegetation, including those that may indicate signs of changes in moisture content;
  • Installation of upgradient power plants, mining operations, or waste disposal operations that could affect groundwater and soil geochemistries;
  • Surface or groundwater flow or retention, changes at the surface that would alter surface-water flow or retention, or the appearance or disappearance of springs;
  • Infrastructure conditions such as those that result in the intentional or unintentional release of fluids or that change subsurface temperatures;
  • Infrastructure or land management decisions such as use or change in deicing salts on pavements or the application of fertilizers that could leach into the subsurface and increase electrochemical potential or encourage the growth of microbes that influence corrosion;
  • Changes in construction practices; and
  • Climate and atmospheric conditions (seasonal and global) that result in changes in temperature and precipitation that in turn affect subsurface temperature, groundwater and the groundwater table, degree of saturation, and saltwater intrusion and that may alter the magnitude or frequency of extreme events.

Some surface changes can be monitored from a desktop computer with few computational resources (e.g., using publicly available data to track precipitation and surface temperatures, land use changes, traffic pattern changes, and changes in topography using airborne and satellite data). Some can be monitored by installing or retrofitting infrastructure with sensors, for example, to monitor the effects of seasonal rainfall in the first few feet of the subsurface. Moisture sensors, resistivity meters, in situ pH sensing with specific ranges, and lysimeters are available or are in various stages of development and could be incorporated into “smart structures” that can monitor for corrosivity. A systems management approach will be needed that can track relevant practices across

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

separately managed infrastructure (e.g., helping the manager of a buried steel structure know if deicing salts applied to pavement by a different infrastructure manager is relevant).

OPPORTUNISTIC DATA COLLECTION

Because excavation is costly, infrastructure owners should take advantage of unexpected opportunities to monitor steel, collect subsurface information, and track infrastructure and subsurface changes.

Recommendation 6: Private- and public-sector infrastructure owners should capitalize on opportunities to record properties of the subsurface and steel in a standardized way when infrastructure needs to be maintained, decommissioned, or replaced.

Opportunistic observations, inspections, and data collection can occur when infrastructure is partially or completely decommissioned (e.g., during maintenance) or replaced. Standardized protocols to collect subsurface property and infrastructure corrosion data should be implemented during those opportunities. Data from fortuitous monitoring opportunities should be systematically saved to inform longitudinal research, DSS, and future decisions for that particular infrastructure, and for buried steel infrastructure more generally.

A DATA CLEARINGHOUSE

Researchers; infrastructure designers, owners, and managers; and steel and steel protection manufacturers could benefit from a public-domain data clearinghouse from which standardized data from multiple industries can be queried and combined to better inform empirically based corrosion rate modeling and corrosion prediction capabilities. The ability to mine data and information would inform corrosion-related experimental designs and modeling and analysis used for infrastructure related design and decision making.

Recommendation 7: Industry groups, public-sector agencies with responsibilities related to buried steel infrastructure, and research organizations should coordinate to establish a public-domain data clearinghouse organized around consistent data-recording standards and a common lexicon for secure sharing of data related to the corrosion of buried steel including data on soil environment, corrosion potential and rates, and corrosion monitoring data.

The data collected as a result of the research and monitoring activities described above need to be made findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (i.e., stored as FAIR data) on a public-domain cyber infrastructure platform. A searchable repository of observations and measurements describing the effects of different properties and characteristics of the subsurface on the durability, performance, and corrosion rates of buried steel in a variety of applications is needed on a platform that will provide researchers with data to accelerate fundamental research. This, in turn, will advance the state of the art and of practice in industry. Given proprietary, security, and vulnerability concerns, data could be identified uniquely and without relation to specific location or infrastructure, which may encourage industry to include its data for the benefit of all technical communities. Ultimately, as more data are deposited, advanced data analytical techniques including artificial intelligence and machine learning may be used to mine and analyze the data and enable a more holistic understanding of the environmental contributors to corrosivity and corrosion rates. With an increased availability of standardized, multidisciplinary, and high-quality data collected from well-documented sites, engineering practitioners could investigate and better understand the contributions of combined subsurface properties to corrosivity and corrosion rates in a given type of environment so that future site characterization investigations can be designed more effectively, infrastructure design and management are more efficient, and monitoring programs can target environments and conditions shown to be problematic for certain types of infrastructure. Developing a data clearinghouse is a long-term investment. Experts from appropriate engineering and scientific disciplines, as well as the relevant data scientists, software engineers, information technology specialists, and data curators, should be convened to identify the mission and goals of a

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

clearinghouse, the type of data resources to be made available, the characteristics of the typical data contributors and users, the potential value of the data now and in the future, the infrastructure and personnel necessary to manage the clearinghouse in the short and long terms, the major cost drivers, and the costs of curating and managing data in the short and long terms.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

No expert from any sector should be complacent about their assumptions associated with the corrosion of buried steel. Given the complexities of the subsurface environment and the numerous factors that contribute to corrosivity and corrosion rates, improved multidisciplinary understanding of corrosion and corrosivity will yield better decisions related to site characterization, corrosion prediction, steel design and protection, and installation than decisions based on the routine application of higher factors of safety. Better performing infrastructure will result. Industry groups can work through their memberships and with each other to develop research needs statements and calls for proposals based on the above recommendations. Entering into partnerships with each other, the public sector, and academe, a common lexicon can be developed, research goals and priorities developed, research conducted, and data appropriately managed and shared to inform new tools and resources. These recommendations are visionary, and it will be necessary for agencies and organizations to collaborate and coordinate efforts to fund and implement them. However, their implementation is expected to lead to model validation and advances in industry-specific practices. These changes will reduce the costs to safety and the environment and for operation and preservation of buried steel infrastructure.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26686.
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Steel is a common component of U.S. infrastructure, but that steel can corrode when buried in soil, rock, or fill. Steel corrosion is estimated to cost the United States 3-4 percent of its gross domestic product every year, and it can lead to infrastructure failure, loss of lives, property, disruption of energy and transportation systems, and damage to the environment. Although the mechanisms of steel corrosion are well understood, limited data on subsurface corrosion and the inability to measure corrosivity directly make accurate corrosion prediction through modeling a challenge. When hazardous levels of corrosion does occur, it is difficult to determine whether the cause was related to site selection, engineering decisions, changes in subsurface conditions, or a combination of these factors.

This report explores the state of knowledge and technical issues regarding the corrosion of steel used for earth applications (e.g., for ground stabilization, pipelines, and infrastructure foundations) in unconsolidated earth or rock in different geologic settings. The report summarizes mechanisms of steel corrosion, assesses the state of practice for characterizing factors in the subsurface environment that influence corrosion and corrosion rates, and assesses the efficacy and uncertainties associated with quantitative, field, and laboratory methods for predicting corrosion.

The industries and experts most involved with managing buried steel should collaborate to improve multidisciplinary understanding of the processes that drive buried steel corrosion. Developing a common lexicon related to buried steel corrosion, generating new data on corrosion through collaborative long-term experiments, sharing and managing data, and developing new data analytical techniques to inform infrastructure design, construction, and management decisions are key. Industries, experts, and regulators should collaboratively develop decision support systems that guide site characterization and help manage risk. These systems and new data should undergird a common clearinghouse for data on corrosion of buried steel, which will ultimately inform better and more efficient management of buried steel infrastructure, and protect safety and the environment.

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