Instrumented Test Coupons and Monitoring System for Improved Material Performance Evaluations

ABSTRACT: The annual cost of corrosion for Air Force aircraft and missiles is estimated to $5.4 billion with corrosion accounting for 32.2% of the maintenance budget. Besides these costs, corrosion also adversely impacts safety and readiness. In large part, corrosion control is achieved through materials selection based on accelerated laboratory corrosion and service environment testing. Although advances have been made in the development of more representative accelerated corrosion test cycles, similar advancements in test coupon design and instrumentation have not been realized. To address this need, Luna is developing a reliable measurement system that improves the corrosion evaluation of aircraft materials to achieve design life requirements. The measurement system will be useful for materials development, materials substitution testing, and establishing performance requirements during acquisition. The system will include a module for testing corrosion fatigue susceptibility of alloys with protective coatings. The measurement system will support risk mitigation associated with new coating introductions. Within the aircraft structural integrity program (ASIP), this measurement system would support technology and system development, demonstration, and be useful for surveying usage environments. BENEFIT: The initial CorRES system application is Air Force coatings research, test, and evaluation. The most immediate market opportunities will be within the coating research and qualification communities. Market focus will be organizations that develop and specify civil and defense aerospace coatings. Potential customers include: PPG (Deft), Akzo Nobel, Hentzen, Boeing, Air Bus, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky, Bell Helicopter, ARL, NAVAIR, and AMCOM. Beyond specific dual use aerospace markets, other more general markets for the CorRES system would include corrosion cabinet manufacturers and service test laboratories. The measurement system is a wireless sensor network and data acquisition system. It was projected that more than half a billion nodes shipped for wireless sensor applications in 2010 for an end-user market worth of at least $7 billion, according to ON World. The wireless sensor market is fragmented and relatively small, but poised for rapid growth, with annual growth rates of 40 or 50% expected.