Corrosion Monitoring and Fatigue Life Prediction System

To address this Air Force need, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new, affordable Corrosion Monitoring and Fatigue Life Prediction (COMFALP) system for corrosion monitoring and management, and aircraft structure lifetime prediction, using: 1) a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) system for in situ detection, identification, estimation, and monitoring of different types of hidden corrosion in multilayered metallic structures in aircraft; and 2) software for forecasting the development of corrosion defects and fatigue-induced micro-cracks. The COMFALP NDE system is based on: the high-resolution X-ray Micro-Structured Lobster-Eye (MSLE) lens; a portable X-ray source; X-ray CCD camera; and software for real-time image processing. The COMFALP software is based on a model defining the effects of pitting and other types of corrosion on fatigue life and degradation of multilayered metallic structures. Due to POCs unique MSLE X-ray lens, the resolution of COMFALP will be ~20 micrometers and density resolution ~0.1%, with effectiveness for multilayered titanium/aluminum alloy structure thickness ~1.5 in., and field of view ~15 x 15 cm. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of COMFALP by management of the fatigue life of corroded coupons. In Phase II, POC plans to design, fabricate, and test the commercial prototype COMFALP. BENEFIT: The immediate application of the COMFALP system is corrosion monitoring and management, and life prediction, for multilayered metallic structures in aircraft, with in situ detection and localization of fatigue cracks and pits inside complicated, multilayered metallic structures, without disassembling or preliminary preparation. Military applications of COMFALP for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army also include corrosion management and NDE of rockets, cruise missiles, light ships, etc. The commercial variant of the proposed low-cost COMFALP system can be used for the corrosion management and NDE of civil aircraft, spacecraft, and other machines.