Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure

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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) will convene an ad hoc committee of volunteer experts from relevant fields in engineering, materials sciences, and manufacturing to consider the state of knowledge regarding, and technical issues associated with the corrosion of steel used in earth applications (e.g., ground stabilization, pipelines, and infrastructure foundations). Committee members chosen from academe and the private and public sectors will prepare a peer reviewed consensus report summarizing the primary mechanisms of the corrosion of bare or coated steel placed in earth materials (e.g., unconsolidated earth or rock in different geologic settings); the state of practice for characterizing earth materials for properties that influence corrosion and corrosion rates; and the use, efficacy, and uncertainties associated with methods to predict, identify, and monitor corrosion of steel in earth materials. The committee will seek broad input from relevant technical communities through meetings and a multi-disciplinary workshop on existing and developing field, laboratory, and modeling methods for characterizing and monitoring corrosion of buried steel. Gaps in knowledge and the short- and long-term research and practices needed to improve long-term performance of steel in earth applications will be described.Corrosion models by materials scientists have focused largely on corrosion of steel in air and water. Fewer models predict corrosion and corrosion rates for steel in earth materials, and those models do not adequately reflect earth environments with heterogeneities in local chemistry, geology, biology, hydrology, and land use. When failures of buried steel occur, it often is not known whether the cause was poor geotechnical site characterization, poor choice of steel design and protection, improper construction, inappropriate modeling of steel corrosion mechanisms, changes in subsurface conditions resulting from changed land use or climatic conditions, or a compounding of these factors. This study will be an interdisciplinary examination of uncertainties throughout the "lifecycle" of buried steel: from performance modeling, to steel manufacturing, to subsurface site characterization, and to the design, construction, and operation and maintenance of infrastructure employing buried steel. Research needed to fill the knowledge gaps in these endeavors will be recommended. Ultimately society will benefit from more resilient and cost-effective infrastructure that performs as expected and required fewer repairs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.