Cellular Automata Approach to Aircraft Corrosion Pit Growth

Corrosion is one of the degrading mechanisms that greatly affect the structural integrity of aerospace components. Corrosion begins with small imperfections in the given material referred to as “pits”. Over time, and with exposure to the environment and loading stresses, these pits grow into structural cracks. These cracks, under further exposure to elements and stress, will eventually lead to material failure. To better understand how corrosion growth process takes place in materials, research is being conducted to simulate corrosion pit growth process using computational intelligence methods. The objective of this study is to develop a discrete dynamic model using cellular automata to simulate the pitting corrosion growth process in aircraft materials, and see how it affects the structural integrity.