Corrosion And Grounding http://www.enviroscan.com/html/corrosion_and_grounding.

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Sunday, December 05, 2010

Geophysical surveys, specifically electrical surveys, can provide data to help prevent or diagnose corrosion
of underground pipelines and other structures, as well as for design of electrical grounding grids.

Metals have natural electrical energy levels or potentials, ranging from the
noble to base metals. When dissimilar metals are connected by a
conductor, the electrical potential difference will drive current flow. The
current is carried by electrons (e-) leaving the base or anodic metal. Loss
of electrons is oxidation; a process commonly called rusting or more
generally corrosion. The flow of electrons and the oxidation reaction on
the corroding anode makes a galvanic corrosion cell. In the Earth,
galvanic corrosion cells occur when dissimilar metals lie in a conductive
soil, or similar metals lie in inhomogeneous soil. Galvanic corrosion cells
are less likely to
develop for
similar metals in
uniform soils, and
for dissimilar
metals in a resistive soil. Thus, knowledge of
in-situ soil electrical conductivity (the exact inverse of resistivity) can provide a qualitative indicator of the
corrosion potential for underground structures.

Corrosion may also occur

where there are artificially
introduced DC electrical
currents in the Earth (stray
currents). These may occur
near electric rail lines, certain
machinery, or cathodic
protection systems. If the
Earth current jumps into a metal
structure, the structure will be
anodic, and corrode, anywhere
that the current leaves. Note
that by common sense convention, the positive direction of current flow is in the opposite direction of the
movement of negatively
charged electrons. As with
galvanic corrosion, stray
current (or electrolytic)
corrosion is allowed by
conductive soils. Since active
corrosion involves current flow
in the Earth, spontaneous
potential (SP) geophysical
surveys can locate areas
where corrosion may be
occurring in the subsurface. In addition, the measured polarity (direction of current flow) can help in
determining whether the corrosion is galvanic or electrolytic, and where the anode and cathode lie

Corrosion on Brass Rusting Steel Pitted Steel Pitted Copper

.
Electrical geophysics methods are also useful for

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Corrosion And Grounding http://www.enviroscan.com/html/corrosion_and_grounding.html

detecting holidays, or holes in corrosion-resistant

underground pipeline and tank coatings. An
electrical signal applied to the protected structure
leaks out through the holiday, and allows precise
pin-pointing of the exposed metal. Utilities whose
precise location is not known can be readily located and traced using a variety of utility detection and
mapping methods.

Measurements of the local soil resistivity, and

variations in resistivity, are also critical for the
design of electrical grounding grids. The soil
resistivity dictates how much surface area of
grounding wire must be in contact with soil to
provide a low enough contact resistance for
safe grounding of equipment in power plants,
substations, wind farms, etc. Both the IEEE
(81-1983) and ASTM (G57-95a) have
standards for determining and reporting
resistivity.

See Also:

Electrical Imaging

Spontaneous Potential

Liner Leak Detection

Underground Utility Mapping

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