Innovative Approaches for the Development of Ultra-High Strength Intrinsically Corrosion Resistant Steel

The materials used in Navy aircraft are subjected to the harsh corrosive maritime operational environment which can cause costly corrosion maintenance problems and failures. Of special importance is the high strength steels used in Navy aircraft landing gears. The current alloys such as AerMet 100 have an excellent combination of strength and toughness but they are not corrosion resistant and require complex and costly materials protection schemes. This SBIR will develop an ultra high strength stainless steel with mechanical properties equivalent to those of AerMet 100 and the corrosion resistance of PH 13-8 (H1025). The SBIR Phase I will involve the design and modeling of low cost, corrosion resistant, high strength, high fracture toughness steels for use as landing gear components. Phase I work will demonstrate the feasibility by producing and testing laboratory scale quantities of the steels. The approach taken to develop these ultra-high strength stainless steels will involve developing chromium-containing high strength steels that utilize improved secondary hardening techniques in combination with the precipitation of strengthening phases.