The anticipated development of Canada’s northern territories has led to the assessment of new technological problems associated with living and working in arctic and subarctic climates. The nature and potential problems of corrosive attack on pipeline materials for oil and gas transmission and distribution under these conditions has been given little previous attention; therefore, practical information is not readily available. The broad aim of the research described in this paper is to investigate the corrosion characteristics of pipeline steels buried in permafrost.
Potentiokinetic techniques were used to study the nature of corrosive attack on a mild steel specified for use under cold weather conditions. Specifically, the influence of a variable ice temperature and ice resistivity on corrosion of steel are reported in this paper. Additionally, the corrosion resistance of steel in contact with an ice/melt interface is discussed. Estimates are given for corrosion rates (corrosion current densities) and corrosion potentials in ice at different temperatures. It was observed that corrosion rates decreased with decreasing temperature, but corrosion potentials increased with decreasing temperature. The ionic rejection and solution concentration effects promoted by an advancing ice face were examined experimentally and the Workman-Reynolds Effect is postulated as an explanation for enhanced corrosion of steels in soils at temperatures near the freezing point.
