Novel Hydrogen Embrittlement Detection System for Shipboard Applications

The objective of the program is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a novel low-cost hydrogen embrittlement detection system for ships. Luna Innovations, Inc. will demonstrate complimentary orthogonal techniques that provide critical direct and indirect information on the conditions that promote environment assisted cracking / hydrogen embrittlement of high strength materials exposed to seawater in the flooded spaces within ships. The detection methods will be evaluated through experiments designed to evaluate their response under mechanical, chemical and electrochemical conditions that are do and do not cause the environmental cracking. The envisioned low-cost, small, and mechanically robust warning system, which would be compatible with impressed current and sacrificial anode cathodic protection systems, would provide an easily interpreted signal of a potential failure or hazardous conditions.