A Novel Embedded Sensor Array for Corrosion Monitoring

Military vehicles such as trucks, tanks, aircraft, and ships are used in a variety of harsh environmental conditions such as salt water oceans, arid desserts, the humid tropics, as well as cold climates. As a result of these extreme environmental conditions, the Department of Defense spends close to $20 billion annually in corrosion-related maintenance, repair/replacement, and personnel costs. Corrosion can progress even beneath painted surfaces with no immediate visual evidence until substantial structural damage has occurred. To minimize the cost associate with extensive repairs, replacement and downtime, Lynntech proposes to develop a continuous corrosion monitoring system which will detect the rates of corrosion, allowing preventive measures to be taken prior to metal fatigue. Lynntech's approach is to use sacrificial metallic array based sensor which is placed underneath the layer of paint. The embedded corrosion sensor will detect and quantify the rate of corrosion and wirelessly transmit the information to handheld monitor. The simplicity and low costs make this technology an attractive solution to monitoring a large number of military vehicles.