Soil corrosion is a hazardous electrochemical process that affects buried metals in contact with soil. Corrosion in soils resembles atmospheric corrosion with corrosion rates usually higher and depending on the soil type. There are numerous properties of soil and thus soils can be classified in many different ways. Soil resistivity is one of the main indicators of soil corrosivity and thus of the hazardous impact the soil has on metal materials in the soil environment, although it is not the only parameter affecting the risk of corrosion damage. In this study on‐site measurements and laboratory measurements of soil characteristics are performed and compared. On‐site measurements include measuring the redox potential and soil resistivity by Wenner 4‐pin method, while the measurements in the laboratory include measuring soil conductivity, as well as moisture content, pH, content of sulphates, chlorides, and sulfides and polarization measurements, which give the most accurate results. The measurements have shown that if the Wenner 4‐pin method is performed in a convenient way the obtained results are not precise but can give an indicative picture of the corrosivity of the observed soil.

This paper presents the detection method and analysis methodology of dynamic stray current effects on underground pipelines based on simultaneous multiparametric measurements in combination with continuous wavelet cross‐correlation and frequency plots. Measurements presented within this paper were conducted at two locations experiencing tram induced dynamic stray currents, in the first case, on unprotected pipeline and in the second case, on pipeline under cathodic protection. On both pipelines, measurements of pipe‐to‐soil potential, lateral potential gradient, corrosion probe current, and pipeline current were simultaneously done for time period of 20 min. For both locations, the two wavelet cross‐correlation spectrograms for the quantities: lateral potential gradient and probe current versus pipe‐to‐soil potential show that 5% statistical significance levels are in periods between 16 and 128 s. Time spans and period lengths of observed cross‐correlations on spectrograms reflect the stray current influence that may be linked to specific events, such as passing of trams. On the other hand, frequency plots of the measured quantities give clear visual representation of the time that pipeline spends in a certain state related to the possible harmful effect of stray current and also show the degree of cathodic protection beneficial effect.