Steel Culvert Corrosion – Failure Analysis Examples from Touchstone Research Laboratory

In addition to performing failure analysis of galvanized steel structures, Touchstone has been asked to perform studies to help manufacturers with their development strategy.

Touchstone’s corrosion laboratory has tested many material combinations for their corrosion compatibility. Touchstone was hired to perform a comparative study of all the kinds of metal culvert used under roads.

Water is often carried underneath highways via metal culverts.

Steel would quickly rust in the elements if it didn’t have a coating and so various sacrificial coatings have been developed to protect the steel structure.

Touchstone was hired to compare the corrosion resistance of the various coatings. Among the products studied: Type I and Type II aluminized steel, Galfan and galvanized steel. This included evaluation of the various coatings on the formed lock seams.

Among the test were salt fog testing, corrosion in potable water, corrosion with concrete, including inspection of installed culverts in the field.

This is one example of thousands of industrial problems and failure analyses Touchstone has conducted.

Should you have a need for alloy development, corrosion or coating protection studies, metallurgical failures, or the need for process improvement, please contact us.

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