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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN CORROSION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Committee on Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering

National Materials Advisory Board

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by Contract No. FA8501-06-D-0001 between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Defense and by awards 0840104 from the National Science Foundation and DE-FG02-08ER46534 from the Department of Energy. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine


The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.


The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.


The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.


The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.


www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
×

COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN CORROSION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

DAVID J. DUQUETTE,

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,

Co-Chair

ROBERT E. SCHAFRIK,

GE Aviation,

Co-Chair

AZIZ I. ASPHAHANI,

Carus Corporation (retired)

GORDON P. BIERWAGEN,

North Dakota State University

DARRYL P. BUTT,

Boise State University

GERALD S. FRANKEL,

Ohio State University

ROGER C. NEWMAN,

University of Toronto

SHARI N. ROSENBLOOM,

Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Inc.

LYLE H. SCHWARTZ (NAE),

University of Maryland

JOHN R. SCULLY,

University of Virginia

PETER F. TORTORELLI,

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

DAVID TREJO,

Oregon State University

DARREL F. UNTEREKER,

Medtronic, Inc.

MIRNA URQUIDI-MACDONALD,

Pennsylvania State University

Staff

ERIK B. SVEDBERG, Study Director

EMILY ANN MEYER, Study Co-director (January 2009 to January 2010)

TERI THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator (until December 2009)

LAURA TOTH, Program Assistant

RICKY D. WASHINGTON, Executive Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
×

NATIONAL MATERIALS ADVISORY BOARD

ROBERT H. LATIFF,

R. Latiff Associates,

Chair

LYLE H. SCHWARTZ,

University of Maryland,

Vice Chair

PETER R. BRIDENBAUGH,

Alcoa, Inc. (retired)

L. CATHERINE BRINSON,

Northwestern University

VALERIE BROWNING,

ValTech Solutions, LLC

JOHN W. CAHN,

University of Washington

YET MING CHIANG,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

GEORGE T. GRAY III,

Los Alamos National Laboratory

SOSSINA M. HAILE,

California Institute of Technology

CAROL A. HANDWERKER,

Purdue University

ELIZABETH HOLM,

Sandia National Laboratories

DAVID W. JOHNSON, JR.,

Stevens Institute of Technology

TOM KING,

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

KENNETH H. SANDHAGE,

Georgia Institute of Technology

ROBERT E. SCHAFRIK,

GE Aviation

STEVEN WAX,

Strategic Analysis, Inc.

Staff

DENNIS I. CHAMOT, Acting Director

ERIK SVEDBERG, Senior Program Officer

HEATHER LOZOWSKI, Financial Associate

LAURA TOTH, Program Assistant

RICKY D. WASHINGTON, Executive Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
×

Preface

Corrosion science and engineering is a complex and broad subject that is not well defined and is still evolving as the subject itself expands beyond the traditional one, “the destructive oxidation of metals,” to the subject of this report, “environmentally induced degradation of a material that involves a chemical reaction.” The newer subject matter encompasses a wide spectrum of environments and all classes of materials, not just metals, and it intentionally excludes degradation due to nonchemical processes such as creep, fatigue, and tribology.

Some technologists perceive the corrosion research field as moribund, but others, including the members of the National Research Council’s Committee on Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering, see the field quite differently—as exciting, poised to make huge leaps. This optimism is based on many converging forces, including the better understanding of nanometer-level chemical processes, instrumentation not previously available that enables the investigation of various phenomena, advances in heuristic- and physics-based materials modeling and simulation, and—especially important—societal expectations that the quality of life will continue to improve in all dimensions.

The degree to which the committee successfully addressed its ambitious charge—to posit grand challenges for corrosion science and engineering and to suggest a national strategy to meet them—will be judged by the readers of this report. The committee hopes that this report will catalyze action to revitalize the corrosion science and engineering field.

Developing a national strategy for any technical field is a highly ambitious goal, as is prioritizing the work that must be done to realize that strategy across all the

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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federal agencies. During its deliberations, the committee realized that thrusts in corrosion science and engineering research must be linked to engineering applications in order to focus research and development efforts. What the committee was able to do was to develop a framework for a national strategy by identifying four corrosion grand challenges that serve as an approach to organizing new basic and applied corrosion research. Because most of the engineering applications in aggressive environments historically used metals, the committee was able to identify more corrosion research opportunities related to metals than to nonmetals. To the extent that it could do so, and based on the experience of its members and the information provided to it, the committee also identified corrosion research opportunities for other materials systems. It expects that an appropriate mechanistic understanding of environmental degradation of nonmetals will lead to proactive approaches to avoiding corrosion or mitigating its effects, basing its ideas on the long experience with corrosion in metallic systems. However, although a few specific such activities are cited in this report, it will be the work of another body to identify research needs and opportunities related to corrosion in nonmetallic systems.

Constituted in the fall of 2008, the committee was given the following the tasks:

  • Identify opportunities and advance scientific and engineering understanding of the mechanisms involved in corrosion processes, environmental materials degradation, and their mitigation.

  • Identify and prioritize a set of research grand challenges that would fill the gaps in emerging scientific and engineering issues.

  • Recommend a national strategy for fundamental corrosion research to gain a critical understanding of (1) degradation of materials by the environment and (2) technologies for mitigating this degradation. The strategy should recommend how best to disseminate the outcomes of corrosion research and incorporate them into corrosion mitigation.

The committee, which was composed of experts in the field as well as generalists and experts in complementary disciplines, explored accomplishments in corrosion research and its effects and assessed needs and opportunities that could be addressed by future research. The full committee met four times between December 2008 and September 2009: on December 18-19, 2008, at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington, D.C.; April 1-2, 2009, at the National Academies’ Beckman Center in Irvine, California; June 15-17, 2009, at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington, D.C.; and September 1-2, 2009, at the J. Erik Jonsson Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The committee also held town hall sessions at the annual meetings of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers and the Minerals, Metals, and

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
×

Materials Society to raise the technical community’s awareness of this study, and it prepared a questionnaire to solicit input from the corrosion community.

This report complements the recent National Research Council report Assessment of Corrosion Education (The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2009). Five of the present committee’s 14 members either served on the committee that wrote the 2009 report or participated as peer reviewers of that report.

The main body of the present report comprises five chapters. Chapter 1, “Corrosion—Its Influence and Control,” sets the stage for the remaining four chapters of the report. It defines “corrosion,” describes its societal impact, and discusses some of the successes of corrosion R&D. Chapter 2, “Grand Challenges for Corrosion Research,” describes the process the committee used to develop the framework of grand challenges, lists the challenges, and then prioritizes them. Chapter 3, “Research Opportunities,” presents examples of basic research (the foundation of addressing all the grand challenges) and applied research that can significantly advance understanding of corrosion and mitigation of its effects, and also describes examples of instrumentation and techniques pertinent to progress in characterizing corrosion processes. Chapter 4, “Dissemination of the Outcomes of Corrosion Research,” addresses technology transfer. The last chapter, “A National Strategy for Corrosion Research,” summarizes the key findings and recommendations of the report. The six appendixes contain the statement of task (A); results of the committee’s questionnaire on corrosion mitigation (B); a discussion on the modeling of corrosion (C); definitions of the acronyms used in the report (D); a summary of current government programs relating to corrosion (E); and biographies of the committee members (F).


David J. Duquette and Robert E. Schafrik, Co-Chairs

Committee on Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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Acknowledgments

The Department of Defense Corrosion Policy and Oversight Office initially requested this study. It was ultimately sponsored by that office and by the National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation within the Engineering Directorate and the Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences.

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:

Fiona M. Doyle, University of California,

Jeremy L. Gilbert, Syracuse University,

Thomas P. Moffat, National Institute of Standards and Technology,

Joe H. Payer, University of Akron,

Kathleen Taylor, General Motors Corporation (retired),

Shelby F. Thames, University of Southern Mississippi, and

Gary Was, University of Michigan.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
×

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by George Dieter, emeritus professor of mechanical engineering, the Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Appointed by the National Research Council (NRC), he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

The committee also thanks the guest speakers at its meetings, who added to the members’ understanding of corrosion and the issues surrounding it:

Graham E.C. Bell, Schiff Associates,

Stanley A. Brown, U.S. Food and Drug Administration,

Luz Marina Calle, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,

Ram Darolia, Consultant,

Daniel Dunmire, Department of Defense,

Brian Gleeson, University of Pittsburgh,

Jonathan Martin, National Institute of Standards and Technology,

Joe H. Payer, University of Akron,

Lewis Sloter, Department of Defense,

John Vetrano, Department of Energy, and

Paul Virmani, Department of Transportation.

In addition, the committee thanks the corrosion experts who attended its town meetings and those who responded to its online questionnaire. Their candid comments were instrumental in allowing the committee to achieve a balanced understanding of the research and development needed to advance the field.

The excellent support of the NRC staff is especially appreciated. Special thanks go to Erik Svedberg, who was indispensable to our accomplishing this study.

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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3

 

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

 

53

   

 Opportunities for Research,

 

55

   

 CGC I:  Development of Cost-Effective, Environment-Friendly Corrosion-Resistant Materials and Coatings,

 

55

   

 CGC II:  High-Fidelity Modeling for the Prediction of Corrosion Degradation in Actual Service Environments,

 

68

   

 CGC III:  Accelerated Corrosion Testing Under Controlled Laboratory Conditions That Quantitatively Correlates to Observed Long-Term Behavior in Service Environments,

 

78

   

 CGC IV:  Accurate Forecasting of Remaining Service Time Until Major Repair, Replacement, or Overhaul Becomes Necessary—i.e., Corrosion Prognosis,

 

83

   

 The Base—Corrosion Science,

 

91

   

 Techniques and Tools for Research,

 

108

   

 Examples of Relevant Techniques and Tools,

 

109

   

 Summary Observations on Instrumentation,

 

120

4

 

DISSEMINATION OF THE OUTCOMES OF CORROSION RESEARCH

 

121

   

 Cultural Challenges,

 

122

   

 Dissemination Strategies for Corrosion Engineering,

 

124

   

 Education,

 

124

   

 Continuing Education,

 

127

   

 Engineering Design Tools and Products,

 

127

   

 New Products,

 

129

   

 Corrosion-Related Specifications and Standards,

 

130

   

 Technology Transfer Organizations,

 

131

5

 

A NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR CORROSION RESEARCH

 

133

   

 Federal Agency Corrosion Road Maps,

 

135

   

 Application-Focused Corrosion Research,

 

136

   

 Establishment of Industry, University, and National Laboratory Consortia,

 

137

   

 Dissemination of the Outcomes of Corrosion Research,

 

138

   

 National Multiagency Committee on Environmental Degradation,

 

139

   

 Summary,

 

139

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2011. Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13032.
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The field of corrosion science and engineering is on the threshold of important advances. Advances in lifetime prediction and technological solutions, as enabled by the convergence of experimental and computational length and timescales and powerful new modeling techniques, are allowing the development of rigorous, mechanistically based models from observations and physical laws.

Despite considerable progress in the integration of materials by design into engineering development of products, corrosion considerations are typically missing from such constructs. Similarly, condition monitoring and remaining life prediction (prognosis) do not at present incorporate corrosion factors. Great opportunities exist to use the framework of these materials design and engineering tools to stimulate corrosion research and development to achieve quantitative life prediction, to incorporate state-of-the-art sensing approaches into experimentation and materials architectures, and to introduce environmental degradation factors into these capabilities.

Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering identifies grand challenges for the corrosion research community, highlights research opportunities in corrosion science and engineering, and posits a national strategy for corrosion research. It is a logical and necessary complement to the recently published book, Assessment of Corrosion Education, which emphasized that technical education must be supported by academic, industrial, and government research. Although the present report focuses on the government role, this emphasis does not diminish the role of industry or academia.

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