Effect of moisture content and compaction on the corrosion of mild steel buried in clay soils

The corrosion of steels in clay soils is of interest for buried steel infrastructure. To obtain better information about the early corrosion effects, mild steel coupons were exposed for 3, 6 and 13 months in finely graded clay soil at different moisture contents and with different degrees of compression to simulate compaction. It was found that the maximum corrosion mass loss and pit depths occurred at a soil moisture content of 17–18 wt-% for...