Computational Design and Development of Low-Voltage Sacrificial Anode

Cathodic protection methods, employing a sacrificial anode, are used to prevent corrosion of iron-based structural components in marine environments. However, as a consequence of galvanic coupling, hydrogen charging of high-strength steels occurs leading to hydrogen embrittlement and stress-corrosion cracking (SCC). Under this proposed SBIR program, QuesTek Innovations LLC, a leader in the field of computational materials design, plans to develop, and qualify a domestically supplied alloy with a corrosion potential tuned to about -0.8V (vs. Ag/AgCl), with maximum current carrying capacity, that can eliminate or reduce the risk of hydrogen embrittlement of high strength materials while providing efficient cathodic protection against corrosion. During the Phase I program QuesTek applied its Materials by Design® methodology to design a series of alloy compositions that met or exceeded the program goal for anode efficiency at three different voltage levels within range targeted in the solicitation. Phase II efforts will focus on the optimization, scale-up, and qualification of a final anode composition and process path. At the end of Phase II QuesTek anticipates generating all qualification data needed to include the alloy in the MIL-DTL-24779 specification. In Phase III our efforts will be expanded to develop applications with similar requirements in the commercial sector.