Assessment of Corrosion Education (2009) / Chapter Skim
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1 Importance of Corrosion Engineering Education
1 Importance of Corrosion Engineering Education
Pages 9-30
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From page 9... ...
Each component of the public infrastructure -- highways, airports, water supply, waste treatment, energy supply, power generation, etc. -- is part of a complex system requiring significant investment. Within that infrastructure, in both the private and government sectors, corrosion affects nearly all of the materials and structures used.
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From page 10... ...
For more information, see the Federal Highway Administration study Corrosion Costs and Preventive Strategies in the United States (1999) , hereinafter called Corrosion Costs.
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From page 11... ...
The true cost of any system that has a lifetime longer than a modern com moditized product like a cell phone must take into account corrosion protection, maintenance, and system performance monitoring. In addition to the dollar impact of corrosion there are impacts that are difficult to quantify in terms of money.
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From page 12... ...
(This study, referred to in this report as Corrosion Costs, is summarized in Appendix A.) Even though there is scatter in these numbers and it is likely that the 2002 GNP is much more heavily weighted to the service economy and less heavily to materials, assets, and maintenance costs than the 1975 GNP, there can be no denying that the impact of corrosion and environmental degradation on the economies of the developed nations is considerable.
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From page 13... ...
Networks and systems for power transmission, water delivery, and information flow are the fabric that holds modern civilization together, and they call for reliability, maintainability, and sustainability. That corrosion is jeopardizing our nation's economy, defense, health, and environment is now well documented and motivates a closer look at what this country's engineers, technicians, and other practitioners who design, manufacture, build, and maintain the national infrastructure are learning about corrosion.
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From page 14... ...
Not anticipating and mitigating corrosion can expose products to a high risk of failure. In the auto industry, severe corrosion of the auto body was once a considerable problem but has been largely overcome by using corrosion-resistant materials and corrosion prevention strategies.
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From page 15... ...
While the monetary cost of corrosion can be estimated, the cost of risks to public safety cannot be so easily measured without performing a complex risk assessment. Public safety and the environment are the main reason end users and the public should be concerned about the state of corrosion engineering education and the implementation of that education by the engineering design workforce.
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From page 16... ...
For example, there have recently been significant failures associated with corrosion at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Figure 1-4 shows an internal corrosion pit that was found in a water injection system in an oil field. In addition, modifications to gasoline formulations that use renewable resources (ethanol)
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From page 17... ...
disposal of nuclear waste are largely an issue of containment vessel corrosion rates and possible failure modes. Virtually all energy sources will see an increasing cost of corrosion and new forms of corrosion.
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From page 18... ...
Electronics and Computers As modern electronic circuitry is reduced to ever-smaller dimensions in order to increase memory and computational density, new problems arise from environmental attack on circuits as their surface to volume ratio increases. The insertion of smart devices and the more widespread the deployment of sensors in all types of systems and structures puts electronics into ever-harsher use environments.
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From page 19... ...
Little is being done to train and prepare present and future professionals in handling this problem properly, and DOD struggles to train its workers to deal well with corrosion. Public Infrastructure The national infrastructure and its maintenance is an important issue (see Figure 1-6)
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From page 20... ...
Connecting the copper piping of a home to steel mains is difficult, as is the incorporation of magnesium anodes for protection of water heaters. See Figure 1-8 for an example of a corroded water heater.
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From page 21... ...
All of these demands will require a workforce conscious of environmental attack on all types of systems and able to anticipate and design for sustainability under extreme conditions. One of the biggest driving factors is the trend to extend the useful lifetimes of items beyond their original design lifetimes.
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From page 22... ...
There is no identifiable advocate for corrosion control as there is for, say, the steel or aluminum industries. While there are interested par ties, such as the corrosion mitigation industry and professional societies like NACE International, corrosion is not a product per se and there is no national advocate for corrosion programs.
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From page 23... ...
Also contributing to the accident were the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require inspection of all the lap joints proposed by Boeing after the discovery of early production difficulties in the 737 cold bond lap joint, which resulted in poor bond durability, corrosion, and premature fatigue cracking.
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From page 24... ...
For example, corroded electrical contacts on F-16s caused "uncommanded" fuel valve closures (with subsequent loss of aircraft) , and corrosion-related cracking of F/A-18 landing gears resulted in failures during carrier operations.
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From page 25... ...
Also relevant is the Senate Armed Services Committee report11 directing the Secretary of Defense, working through the DOD corrosion executive and its C orrosion Policy and Oversight Office, to commission a study under the auspices of the National Research Council (NRC) to assess corrosion engineering educa tion in engineering programs and develop recommendations that could enhance c orrosion-related skills and knowledge, which, of course, is the mandate for the present study.
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From page 26... ...
Sponsored research provides support for graduate students and laboratory infrastructure, and it attracts top faculty to the field and the institution. Under graduate programs benefit substantially from research by the trickle-down effect, whereby undergraduates become engaged in research or take courses that focus on topics that have high research profiles.
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From page 27... ...
The FHWA and NACE International study Corrosion Costs made recommendations for preventing or mitigating corrosion.12 Education is the key to carrying out these recommendations: • Preventive strategies in nontechnical areas: -- Increase awareness of the significant corrosion costs and the potential savings. -- Change the misconception that nothing can be done about corrosion.
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From page 28... ...
Between 1980 and 2006, employment in the U.S. plastics industry grew by 1.1 percent per year, and the real value of plastics shipped grew 140 percent, from $114.5 billion to $275 billion.13 Ceramics, concrete, asphalt, and natural stone remain key components of the public infrastruc ture, but new hybrid organic/inorganic materials, materials based on nanoscale prop erties, and biomimetic materials are all increasingly in use.
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From page 29... ...
The fact that cases of polymer and composite failure caused by some form of environmental inter action continue to occur in significant number suggests that education in this area is entirely inadequate. Many but not all engineering curricula pay relatively scant attention to the proper ties of organic materials, and the phenomena associated with their degradation are often taught only at a superficial level.
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From page 30... ...
It examines whether meeting government and industry needs demands new approaches in corrosion engineering education. For instance, DOD takes an aggressive stance against cor rosion, which directly affects its readiness, but it is unclear whether the nation is producing engineering practitioners who can implement the corrosion strategies of DOD and other national entities.
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