Prediction of Failure Due to Thermal Aging, Corrosion and Environmental Fracture in Amorphous and Titanium Alloys
DARPA is exploring a number of advanced materials for military applications, including amorphous metals and titanium-based alloys. Equipment made from these materials can undergo degradation due to thermal aging, uniform corrosion, pitting, crevice corrosion, denting, stress corrosion cracking, corrosion fatigue, hydrogen induced cracking and microbial influenced corrosion. Amorphous alloys have exceptional resistance to corrosion, due in part to the absence of grain boundaries, but can undergo crystallization and other phase instabilities during heating and welding. Titanium alloys are extremely corrosion resistant due to the formation of a tenacious passive film of titanium oxide, but is prone to hydrogen absorption in crevices, and hydrogen induced cracking after hydrogen absorption. Accurate predictions of equipment reliability, necessary for strategic planning, requires integrated models that account for all relevant modes of attack, and that can make probabilistic predictions. Once developed, model parameters must be determined experimentally, and the validity of models must be established through careful laboratory and field tests. Such validation testing requires state-of-the-art surface analytical techniques, as well as electrochemical and fracture mechanics tests. The interaction between those processes that perturb the local environment on a surface and those that alter metallurgical condition must be integrated in predictive models. The material and environment come together to drive various modes of corrosive attack (Figure 1). Models must be supported through comprehensive materials testing capabilities. Such capabilities are available at LLNL and include: the Long Term Corrosion Test Facility (LTCTF) where large numbers of standard samples can be exposed to realistic test media at several temperature levels; a reverse DC machine that can be used to monitor the propagation of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in situ; and banks of potentiostats with temperature controlled cells for potentiostatic and potentiodynamic testing (Figure 2).
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15004311
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-148053; TRN: US201015%%496
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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