Aspects of Two Corrosion Processes Relevant to Military Hardware

Corrosion is a leading material degradation mode observed in many military systems. This report contains a description of a small project that was performed to allow some of the important electrochemical aspects of two distinct and potentially relevant degradation modes to be better understood: environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) of aluminum alloys and corrosion in moist salt. Two specific and respective tasks were completed: (A) the characterization of the effect of aluminum microstructural variability on its susceptibility to EAC, and (B) the development of experimental and analytical techniques that can be used to identify the factors and processes that influence the corrosivity of moist salt mixtures. The resultant information constitutes part of the basis needed to ultimately predict component reliability and/or possibly to identify techniques that could be used to control corrosion in critical components. In Task A, a physical model and related understanding for the relevant degradation processes were formulated. The primary result from Task B included the identification and qualitative validation of a methodology for determining the corrosivity of salt mixtures. A detailed compilation of the results obtained from each of these two diverse tasks is presented separately in the body of this report.