Corrosion of Steel Pilings in Soils

level or in the water table zone. At these levels thepile sections are accessible if the need for protectionshould be deemed necessary.It was observed that soil environments which areseverely corrosive to iron and steel buried underdisturbed conditions in excavated trenches were notcorrosive to steel pilings driven in the undisturbedsoil. The difference in corrosion is attributed tothe differences in oxygen concentration. The dataindicate that undisturbed soils are so deficient inoxygen at levels a few feet below the ground line orbelow the water table zone, that steel pilings arenot appreciably affected by corrosion, regardless ofthe soil types or the soil properties. Properties ofsoils such as type, drainage, resistivity, pH or chemical composition are of no practical value in determining the corrosiveness of soils toward steel pilingsdriven underground. This is contrary to everythingpreviously published pertaining to the behavior ofsteel under disturbed soil conditions. Hence, it canbe concluded that National Bureau of Standardsdata previously published on specimens exposed indisturbed soils do not apply to steel pilings whichare driven in undisturbed soils.The author acknowledges the support in thisprogram of the American Iron and Steel Institute,the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and the WaterwaysExperiment Station of the Corps of Engineers.The author is especially grateful to the followingindividuals who rendered assistance by participatingin various phases of the investigation: HaroldArdahl, Corps of Engineers, Lower MississippiValley Division; Walter B. Farrar, Corps of Engineers, Office of Chief Engineer; F. E. Fahy, Chairmanof the Piling Subcommittee of the A.I.S.I. Committee on Building Research and Technology;C. P. Larrabee, United States Steel Company;T. D. Dismuke, Bethlehem Steel Company; andW. D. Tryon, Williams-McWilliams Industries, Inc.7. References[1] Melvin Romanoff, Underground corrosion, NationalBureau of Standards Circular 579. U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, Washington 25, D.C., (1957).[2] Paul Anderson, Substructure Analysis and Design, p.139, 2d Ed., The Ronald Press, New York, New York(1956).[3] G. A. Hool and W. S. Kinne, Foundations, Abutmentsand Footings, p. 204, 2d Ed. ? McGraw-Hill BookCompany, Inc., New York, N.Y., (1943).[4] J. G. Mason and A. L. Ogle, Steel pile foundations inNebraska, Civil Eng. 2, No. 9, 533 (1932).[5] Louis Beaudry, Quay wall design and construction, Eng.J. (Canada) 14, 394 (1931).[6] Steel shells in service 39 years still sound and serviceable,Eng. News-Record 100, No. 15, 590 (Apr. 12, 1928).[7] Life of steel sheet piling, Iron Age 129, No. 23, 1247(June 9, 1932).[8] B. M. Gallaway, A report on some factors affecting thelife of steel pilings in the Texas Gulf Coast area,Texas Transportation Institute, College Station,Texas (Oct. 1955).[9] G. G. Greulich, Extracted steel H-piles found in goodcondition, Eng. News-Record, 145, No. 8, 41 (Aug.24, 1950).[10] C. V. Brouillette and A. E. Hanna, Corrosion survey ofsteel sheet piling, Tech. Report 097, U.S. Naval CivilEngineering Laboratory, Port Hueneme, California(Dec. 27, 1960).[11] M. N. Lipp, Some data on beach protection works, CivilEng. 6, No. 5, 291 (1936).[12] C, W. Ross, Deterioration of steel sheet pile groins atPalm Beach, Fla., Corrosion 5, No. 10, 339 (1949).[13] A. C. Rayner and C. W. Ross, Durability of steel sheetpilings in shore structures, Tech. Memo. No. 12,Beach Erosion Board, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army(Feb. 1952).[14] Laurits Bjerrum, Norwegian experience with steel pilefoundations to rock, J. Boston Soc. Civil Eng. 44,No. 3, 155 (1957).[15] B. O. Skipp, Corrosion and site investigation, CorrosionTechnol. 8, No. 9, 269 (Sept. 1961).[16] W. J. Schwerdtfeger, Laboratory measurement of thecorrosion of ferrous metals in soils, J. Research NBS50, 329 (1953).WASHINGTON, D.C.U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFF1CE:I96222