Corrosion Rate Of Mild Steel In Clay Media: A Case Study Of Igumale In Ado Local Government Area Of Benue State

ABSTRACT

Soil corrosion is a serious threat to the integrity of buried structures such as underground storage tanks, oil and gas transmission pipelines, and many other structures. This paper investigates the effects of soil engineering properties towards metal loss of buried mild steel coupons. The study focuses on soil engineering properties which are soil clay, pH and moisture content. The samples of mild steel obtained from the University of Agriculture Engineering workshop in Benue state Nigeria were buried in five different soil samples obtained from Igumale in Ado Local Government Area of Benue state for a period of fifty-six (56) days with 168 hours’ intervals in order to investigate the rate of corrosion by the weight loss technique.The soils studied from Igumale soil were tag sample A, B, C, D and E. From the experiment carried out at normal atmospheric pressure and temperature it was shown that the soil sample D is most corrosive to mild steel. Sample B and E exhibited the same rate of corrosion. The pH of the soil is shown to have an influence on the corrosion rate. The increase in the rate of corrosion is explained in terms of moisture content and clay content using figures .