Field corrosion characterization of soil corrosion of X70 pipeline steel in a red clay soil

The corrosion behavior of X70 pipeline steel buried in red soil environment has been studied. The surface morphology and elemental distribution were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM),energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The corrosion kinetics was evaluated by weight loss measurement. The results show that in red soil, the corrosion rate of X70 steel decreases with time, and follows the exponential decay law. General corrosion with non-uniform and localized pitting occurred on the steel surface. α-FeOOH was the dominate products during corrosion in whole buried periods, and the corrosion products exhibited well protective properties. The potentiodynamic polarization tests revealed that i_corr decreased with time, indicating the improvement of corrosion resistance. The results of Electrochemical impendence spectroscopy (EIS) are consistent with potentiodynamic polarization tests.