Soil Corrosion is the chemical process that affects buried metals in direct contact with soil or bedrock.
An often overlooked factor in design of (partly) underground installations is that soil can be as corrosive as any other environment and can result to serious hazards to people and assets.
There are a lot of factors affecting the anodic and cathodic polarization characteristics of metals in soil. At Endures we have the expertise and facilities to determine the corrosive properties of soil, including:
Based on laboratory investigations (e.g. following DIN50929-3 – see table) we can characterize your soil type and the aggressiveness of the environment for a metal structure which will be (partly) installed for a specific lifetime in the soil. On request we can advise on how your structure can be protected (e.g. coatings, metallization, cathodic protection) for the planned lifetime. Getting corrosion advice upfront prior to installing the structure will help you to prevent unplanned failure or maintenance costs after installation.
Would you like to know more about soil corrosion or underground exposure tests
Together with sister company OCAS we can also offer long term outdoor exposure tests on an outdoor exposure site. Three pits each with a wide range of soil types are available to test various protected or unprotected materials; while parameters such as pH, texture and redox potential are monitored.
Have a closer look at: https://www.ocas.be/cases/outdoor-soil-corrosion-site-now-available/
During the past years Endures worked closely together with different geo-consultant agencies and collected a lot of experience in offshore sampling campaigns, designed protocols for appropriate storage and transport of samples and we carried out the MIC related laboratory work.
On request we can also test the effects of different protection techniques such as coatings, metallization or cathodic protection on MIC, in customer specific in-situ or laboratory set-ups. These investigations allow us to define the possible MIC risk. Based on this, adequate protection is identified to ensure its planned lifetime. At the same time, costly overprotection of your structure can be avoided.
Furthermore, we are conducting microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) investigations in sediments. Are you active in geotechnical surveys for example for the offshore wind market and you are looking for someone who can fill in the MIC work? Contact us here!
Endures has a fully equipped microbiological laboratory in the port city of Den Helder in the Netherlands, where we can quantify MIC relevant microorganisms (growth & DNA based techniques) in water or sediments. Moreover, we can correlate these findings with a potential MIC risk based on the metabolic activity and weight loss determinations of specific materials exposed to the environment.
The experts of Endures can perform a wide range of multidisciplinary experiments under diverse environmental conditions and exposure regimes. Some of these tests and experiments include:
Expert Microbial Corrosion & Biofilms
+31 (0) 6 46 84 72 96
