corrosion protection of aluminum pipe buried underground

[zlong]

In a design, we need to bury 3' of 8' long aluminum (6061-T6) pipe underground. Do I need to worry about the corrosion? If yes, is there anything we can do to protect the corrosion? Thanks in advance.

 

[stanweld]

You do have to worry about corrosion. I would advise coating the pipe, placing in a protective "vault" (no direct burial in the soil).

 

[EdStainless]

This is a high strength alloy, is the buried part going to be loaded heavily?
Any contact with moist soil could be serious trouble.

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Plymouth Tube

 

[zlong]

To Stanweld: someone comes out of this "bury" idea which is different from our normal practice. What kind of coating should I use?

To EdStainless: the load is not heavy. Aluminum pipe is used because our company uses it a lot.

 

[IRstuff]

An an-asked and un-answered question: how long does the pipe have to last?

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[KENAT]

Does it have to be that grade? There are marine & architectural grades. Still not sure how well they'd hold up 'buried' but simplistically one might expect them to do better.

What coating/treatment options do you have? Anodizing is a common treatment for aluminum but not sure it's a good option for you.

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(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[zlong]

We are in Railroad industy. They expect the post to be forever, like 50 years. In this kind application, we normally use cast iron with black painting. Due to the availaibility of the tooling, someone started to use 6061-T6 aluminum pipe for this application last year. I got some costing options from aluminum association but don't have chance to review them. For burying underground, like foundation, concrete and galvanized steel are used besides the cast iron. I prefer to change the aluminum pipe to galvanized steel pipe.