Pitting Corrosion Sensor and Tracker Navy SBIR FY2011.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2011.2 Topic No.: N112-120 Topic Title: Pitting Corrosion Sensor and Tracker Proposal No.: N112-120-0861 Firm: Acellent Technologies, Inc. 835 Stewart Drive Sunnyvale, California 94085-4514 Contact: Howard Chung Phone: (408) 745-1188 Web Site: www.acellent.com Abstract: The Navy is interested in innovative ways to detect and track corrosion between metallic surfaces in magnesium housings. Many of the corrosion inspection methods currently employed in the field to inspect magnesium housings involve disassembling the components and performing a visual inspection. Apart from being time‐consuming, labor intensive, cumbersome and unreliable these inspections often lead to damage of the protective coating covering the surface during disassembly. In addition, the corrosion areas of interest are located in close proximity to the aircraft flight controls and the gearbox mounting and hence a good monitoring system is critical for aircraft safety. In response, Acellent is proposing to use its SMART Layer technology to develop a corrosion inspection system to detect and track corrosion between metallic surfaces to within 5 mils depth and to locate the areas of corrosion to within 1 inch accuracy. This handheld Corrosion Detection system will consist of a Hybrid SMART layer network with piezoelectric sensors for corrosion detection and pressure sensors to detect pressure changes between the metal layers. The system will be developed and tested for resilience against changing stresses, corrosive environments and fretting movement. Several alternative sensors configurations and technologies to detect bolt preloads are also considered. Benefits: The primary targeted market for this venture is the aircraft industry. The airline industry's biggest challenge is that it must maintain a high standard of safety with its aging fleet in an economic environment that is intensely competitive. Thus, the proposed technology will be used to provide an SHM system that can be used on new and aging commercial aircraft for detecting corrosion and related damages. Beyond the airline industry, the nearest industry that will be directly impacted is the civil and offshore industry where corrosion is a major problem due to constant exposure to humid atmospheres, seawater, air borne contaminants, temperature and biological organisms. The offshore structures include pipelines, ships, submarines, drillers, risers, tensioners etc. Current practices employed in the shipping industry for detecting corrosion mostly rely on visual inspection methods. As such, these methods may be unreliable and do not give an accurate prediction of the corrosion status of the ship components. Under these circumstances, Acellent's technology will enable an efficient, convenient and cost saving solution. On the Government front, this technology would benefit all the DOD agencies as the technology can be used to monitor corrosion in different structural components on aircraft, ships and land vehicles. In addition to the military front, it can also be used by DOT to monitor the country's aging civil infrastructure such as bridges and pipelines. Return