AMMTIAC Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 - Advanced Materials ...

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This past year was an eventful one for AMMTIAC in most measurable ways, including a change at the top. Last Spring AMMTIAC welcomed Mr. Mike Morgan to the team as its new Director. Mike’s strong background in systems engineering is a timely addition to the organization, as AMMTIAC is in the process of extending it’s technical reach beyond the basic enabling technologies of materials, manufacturing, and testing into the more general domains of design, systems, manufacturing methods, quality, and other application-oriented disciplines. Mike comes most recently from the aerospace sector where he managed the testing and development of new materials and processes for thermal management systems in satellite applications. He also brings with him an extensive background in business development, technology transfer, and program management. Mike is no stranger to the military, having spent ten years earlier in his career as a civilian engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate in Dayton, Ohio. Among his more notable accomplishments, he managed major flight testing programs to evaluate upgrades to existing and emerging weapon systems. He also directed and led several multidisciplinary integration teams that were responsible for inserting new technologies into developing military systems. Moreover, Mike has a genuine appreciation for the needs of the warfighter, having begun his career in the Navy serving aboard a nuclear submarine as enlisted personnel. In his six years as an electrician and a nuclear power plant operator, he gained an understanding of life in the trenches that few could ever hope to acquire vicariously. “AMMTIAC and its predecessors have a proud history of service to its traditional user bases, and I am delighted to now Meet Our New Director Mike Morgan be a part of that,” says Mike, “but the needs of the DoD are evolving, and so must AMMTIAC’s ability to serve the changing mission of the warfighter.” He adds, “Most of AMMTIAC’s user community know us for this publication, the AMMTIAC Quarterly – in fact, many people believe that AMMTIAC is the magazine and are unaware that there is an entire center of excellence behind it. We are working to change that perception by becoming more of a household name. In the past, we have been successful at providing support to the defense community by being an information resource through our technical inquiry service, the Quarterly, our website, the resources of our 300,000 volume library, and the many databases and products we offer. However, we can serve our growing user base even better by making them aware of all the other ways we can support organizations and programs. One of the most important things I hope to accomplish as Director is to reach out to the program offices, product centers, commands, sustainment centers, and other organizations so we can directly help them in their missions.” Mike further points out, “AMMTIAC is not merely a technology transfer organization or center of excellence; it is also a pre-competed, pre-awarded contract vehicle. Being a task order contract vehicle, government organizations can utilize the AMMTIAC to get new work started in a matter of weeks. Rapid response to customer needs is one tenet of AMMTIAC’s charter, and we are committed to serving the community as a one-stop shop for their needs. I look forward to the challenge of serving the DoD in this capacity.” To learn how AMMTIAC can work for you visit: http://ammtiac.alionscience.com/contractvehicle • Meet our team • See examples of work on contract Editor-in-Chief Benjamin D. Craig Publication Design Cynthia Long Tamara R. Grossman Copy Editor Perry Onderdonk Information Processing Caron Dibert Inquiry Services Richard A. Lane Product Sales Gina Nash The AMMTIAC Quarterly is published by the Advanced Materials, Manufacturing, and Testing Information Analysis Center (AMMTIAC). AMMTIAC is a DoD-sponsored Information Analysis Center, administratively managed by the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). Policy oversight is provided by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E). The AMMTIAC Quarterly is distributed to more than 18,000 materials, manufacturing, and testing professionals around the world. Inquiries about AMMTIAC capabilities, products, and services may be addressed to: Micheal J. Morgan Director, AMMTIAC PHONE: 937.431.9322 x103 EMAIL: ammtiac@alionscience.com URL: http://ammtiac.alionscience.com We welcome your input! To submit your related articles, photos, notices, or ideas for future issues, please contact: AMMTIAC ATTN: BENJAMIN D. CRAIG 201 Mill Street Rome, New York 13440 PHONE: 315.339.7019 FAX: 315.339.7107 EMAIL: ammtiac@alionscience.com
George A. Matzkanin H. Thomas Yolken AMMTIAC Austin, TX INTRODUCTION Corrosion of metallic structures is an industry and governmentwide maintenance problem that has been rapidly spreading due to the increased amount of infrastructure and military assets that are aging. However, even in the case of newer systems and components, corrosion can be a significant problem because of the harsh operational environments encountered. Recognition of the severity and the resulting economic impact of the corrosion problem by various industries and government agencies has led to significant effort over the past 50 years to prevent and control corrosion. Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) plays an important role in this effort, mostly by enabling the detection of early signs of corrosion so that corrective action can be taken before the damage becomes severe. Hidden Corrosion Hidden corrosion is a type of electro-chemical material degradation that is not readily or directly detectable visually, or by any other surface measurement technique.[1] It can often be detected and quantified in terms of reduction of wall thickness or structural discontinuities such as pits, flaws and voids. When attempting to detect material degradation due to electro-chemical processes, the corrosion products (e.g., iron oxides, aluminum oxides, etc.) must be identified so that an appropriate energy source can be selected for detection. In order to perform an inspection for hidden corrosion, the detection energy source must be capable of penetrating the material in which the corrosion is hidden.[1] If the appropriate source is selected, then the returned signal will contain an evaluation of the entire material, including the physical geometry of the component or system, which may indicate its structural integrity, and any hidden corrosion. Thus, the inherent technical challenges are to select the most appropriate interrogation energy source and to recover the signal that identifies the existence of corrosion. Recovering the desired corrosion data is a mathematical inversion problem. Depending on the energy source used, the characteristics of materials, and the corrosion hidden in structural systems, an exact solution of the inversion problem may not be feasible. Therefore, data analysis and information processing, such as the use of neuro-nets, have become key enablers in developing NDE techniques for hidden corrosion. The military is considered the primary driver for the development of corrosion detection technology, while the nuclear, chemical, petroleum, and oil and gas pipeline industries are secondary drivers of this technology. This is due in part to the fact that military systems are typically fielded longer, have higher operational cycle rates and operate in more corrosive environments than commercial systems.[2] Aging DoD assets have exacerbated the problem Figure 1. An F/A-18C Hornet is Moved to the Flight Deck on an Aircraft Elevator. (Photo taken by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Todd Frantom and Provided Courtesy of the US Navy). of corrosion and have increased the need for prevention, hidden corrosion detection, and repair. The corrosion battle extends to essentially the entire spectrum of DoD systems, including surface ships, submarines, carrier and land-based aircraft, land vehicles, and amphibious landing craft. As systems age, corrosion becomes one of the largest cost drivers in life cycle costs of weapon systems. An example of this problem is the cables that are used for elevators on aircraft carriers (Figure 1). These cables are outside the carrier hull and are exposed to the extremely harsh corrosive environment. Due to the unavailability of NDE detection technology, these elevator cables are replaced on a time-based schedule every several years at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per elevator. PRIMARY NDE METHODS FOR DETECTING HIDDEN CORROSION Guided Ultrasonic Waves Guided ultrasonic wave NDE offers the potential for a costeffective methodology for inspection of hidden corrosion in large and sometimes difficult to access areas, such as insulated piping. The field of guided waves has reached some degree of maturity, but unfortunately the number of practical applications compared to the number of research papers is rather small. Guided waves can be used in three regimes, depending on inspection distance: • Short range (
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AMMTIAC Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 - Advanced Materials ...

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