Programmable Accelerated Environmental Test System

ABSTRACT:Corrosion is a serious problem affecting the longevity, safety, durability, and affordability of military and commercial aircraft. Despite strict implementation of MIL and ASTM standards for aircraft Outer Mold Line (OML) coatings, corrosion is frequently observed during maintenance partly due to inadequate testing methods representing an in-service environmental exposure; hence, advanced tools are required for more accurate and realistic assessment of these coatings. A programmable accelerated environmental test system that can simulate on-service aircraft exposure of salt-fog, temperature, UV, and corrosive gases can provide immense value to the aircraft industry. Systems & Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) proposes to design and build a programmable chamber that can simulate a realistic environmental exposure of aircraft coatings on representative test coupons. The chamber will use an IR flash thermography technique to monitor corrosion without interrupting the test in progress. The Phase I SBIR effort demonstrated a scaled down prototype of the chamber with software functionality. The Phase II program will focus on developing a full-scale prototype and user-friendly software to control the entire system. The outcome of this effort will be a better assessment tool to qualify aircraft coatings for safe, durable, long-term, and sustainable aircraft operation.BENEFIT:An advanced environmental chamber will provide a necessary tool to Air Force to evaluate next generation coatings. Additionally, SMRCs chamber will provide in-situ corrosion analysis capability to its users by capturing IR images to study corrosion growth mechanisms. Such a system should be able to detect small corrosion pits underneath a coating and allow experts to study its propagation mechanism. If successful, SMRCs system will be able to provide users with an ability to change environmental parameters such as humidity, salt concentration, temperature, UV exposure, and gas concentration to conduct a comprehensive design of experiments and continuously monitor corrosion via IR flash thermography. Additionally, the chamber will be able to incorporate existing and newly developed mechanical test fixtures and additional testing capability.