ABSTRACT

Deterioration of the infrastructure concerned with metallic structures is due to several causes but the most widely recognised factor is corrosion. Corrosion has a huge economic and environmental impact on virtually all facets of the world’s infrastructure, from highways, bridges, and buildings to oil and gas, chemical processing, water and wastewater systems. In addition to causing severe damage and threats to public safety, corrosion disrupts operations and requires extensive repair and replacement of failed assets. The annual cost of corrosion worldwide is estimated to exceed $1.8 trillion, which translates to 3 to 4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of industrialized countries. In the US, the annual cost of corrosion is estimated as $276B (Schmitt, 2009). The annual cost of corrosion to the Australian economy is estimated to be between $36B and $60B, whereas for the New Zealand economy the cost lies between $5.5B and $9.2B (ACA, 2010]. Yet, governments and industries pay little attention to corrosion except in high-risk areas like pipelines which is the subject of this paper.