Determination of Soil Corrosion Potential for Gas Pipeline Cathodic Protection System Planning

Abstract

Research has been carried out to identify the potential for soil corrosion for the design of the cathodic gas pipeline protection system. The research location is in Cimanggis - Bitung, West Java, which is located at coordinates 6°19’00 “- 6°28’00” South Latitude and 106°43’00 “- 106°55’30” East Longitude. Measurement of soil resistivity using the Wenner method which refers to ASTM G37, with variations in distance of 0.75m, 1.50m, 2.50m and 6.00m at each point. The number of measurement points is 185 points. DC electric current is injected into the ground, then the current and potential values between the electrodes are read on the device. Then the soil resistivity is calculated using the equation ρ = 2πAR. The results of the measurements are soil type resistance which is then categorized according to the level of corrosion. Based on the results of data processing and interpretation of soil resistivity, some locations have low to extreme corrosion rates. The degree of soil corrosion will affect the corrosion of buried pipes. Therefore, for these locations, planning and technical calculations are needed for the protection of the pipes to be installed.