Three-dimensional Surface Corrosion Growth Model for Materials Design

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0116047PidapartiStructural materials of the 21st century will have to meet increasingly demanding standards for performance and life. The strength and integrity of a structural component deteriorates mainly due to corrosion and fatigue along with other failure mechanisms in structural materials. Among various aspects of corrosion, pitting corrosion is a complex process, and is a major problem in many engineering industries. Pitting corrosion mechanism usually initiate at the micro/nano-structure level and the details of the mechanisms depend on the material composition, electrolyte and other environmental conditions. Even though much effort has been put into assessing the material loss due to corrosion over the years, the mechanical characteristics and its relationship at multiple levels due to pitting corrosion are not yet known. The material loss information along with the topology and its relationship at various material scales are necessary for better understanding and designing of corrosion resistant materials.The objective of the proposed research is to develop a three-dimensional corrosion growth model to aid in the assessment and design of materials and their effect on structural integrity. Corrosion growth model will be developed as a discrete dynamical system based on cellular automata approach. This approach incorporates both macroscopic (corrosion pit distribution and the material loss) and microscopic (chemical interaction mechanisms) scales of the corrosion process into the model. Mechanisms involving both physical and mechanistic basis will be used to obtain rules in developing corrosion growth models. The developed models will be tested and validated using real data by collaborating with Naval Surface Warfare Center, CRANE division, Indiana, and with the data obtained from Raytheon Systems Company, Texas. A three-dimensional visualization software will be developed to visualize the corrosion growth data in real time to see the corrosion growth process. Algorithms developed through this project will be directly used in materials and simulation courses in Engineering and Computer Science disciplines.The proposed research will greatly help to understand the corrosion growth process in materials. The 3D visualization capability will provide insight into better understanding of the characteristics of corrosion growth process, and may lead to the development of more efficient corrosion growth and prediction algorithms. A fundamental understanding of the macro- and micro-level corrosion growth models based on local rules will provide valuable information and tools for designing corrosion resistant materials for a variety of engineering applications. The proposed approach will provide a general solution to structural corrosion in materials so that it can be scaled up to other structural materials.