Corrosion Performance of Cu Bonded Grounding-Electrode by Accelerated Corrosion Test

Abstract

Natural degradation of grounding-electrode in soil environment should be monitored for several decadesto predict the lifetime of the grounding electrode for efficient application and management. However,long-term studies for such electrodes have many practical limitations. The conventional acceleratedcorrosion test is unsuitable for such studies because simulated soil corrosion process cannot representthe actual soil environment. A preliminary experiment of accelerated corrosion test was conductedusing existing test standards. The accelerated corrosion test that reflects the actual soil environmenthas been developed to evaluate corrosion performances of grounding-electrodes in a short period. Severaltest conditions with different chamber temperatures and salt spray were used to imitate actual fieldconditions based on ASTM B162, ASTM B117, and ISO 14993 standards. Accelerated degradationspecimens of copper-bonded electrodes were made by the facile method and their corrosion performanceswere investigated. Their corrosion rates were calculated to 0.042 μm/day, 0.316 μm/day, and 0.11μm/day, respectively. These results indicate that accelerated deterioration of grounding materials canbe determined in a short period by using cyclic test condition with salt spray temperature of 50 °C.