Buried steel pipelines operating in soil environments are constantly under threat from corrosion, a phenomenon which jeopardizes their structural integrity and escalates the risk of material degradation, leakage, and subsequent environmental hazards. A holistic understanding of the corrosion process in soil environments is essential for strengthening infrastructural resilience and upholding environmental sustainability.
Corrosion of metals in soils is dictated by a complex confluence of several factors, including aeration, pH, moisture content, ionic composition, electrical resistivity, and microbial activity1.