CORROSION AND SURFACES
LABORATORY.
Department of
Chemical Engineering
The
Introduction.
The Corrosion and Surfaces Laboratory at the
Erosion
Corrosion of 316L flange pipe joint from a chemical plant
Current Research Projects.
Chromate
replacement technology.
An
alternate to chromates for aluminum alloys was developed, patent 6,706,207, at URI. Further research is continuing to
improve the protection provided.
Cyclic
fatigue data for Al2024T3, indicating that the URI conversion treatment does
not cause any fatigue degradation.
Surface
treatment for paint adhesion.
An
investigation of surface treatments for both galvanized and metallized steel to
promote paint adhesion is being conducted, funded by Rhode Island Department of
Transportation.
Cathodes
for undersea batteries.
The
role of current density and biological species on the efficiency of cathodes
for undersea power applications is being investigated.
Naturally occurring materials
to manufacture composite by simple low cost technologies.
In
this project, a naturally occurring plant will be broken down chemically into
fibrous form and employed as part of a composite material.
Projects Available for Funding.
Naturally
occurring materials to manufacture composites by simple low cost technologies
at present this project is unfunded.
Phragmite exists in many area of the world as reed.
This plant is an invasive species, fast growing and stable in a wide range of
wet environments. The technology to make fibers from the plants is being
investigated so it can be combined with other organic polymers for new
composite materials. Applications include hand rails, lightpoles, and utility
boxes.
The plant starts to breaks down into fibrous form
after immersion in sodium hydroxide at elevated temperature.
Adhesive
Bonding Modification - at present this
project is unfunded.
Improved adhesive bond durability will be investigated
in this project. For titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V adhesively bonded to carbon fiber
composite, a modification of the surface pre-treatment from a strontium
chromate containing primer to a titanate- peroxide dip improved bond
durability. The failure mode after marine exposure for lap shear samples also
changed. Instead of interfacial failure at the chromate-titanium interface,
first ply failure in the composite was the mechanism of failure. The figures
below show the originally bonded sides of lap shear samples after testing to
failure. Further research would investigate other material combinations using
novel new pretreatments.
Chromate primer still on Bare titanium alloy
bond area originally
adhesive bond area attached coated with chromate primer.
to composite.
First ply failure for URI adhesive bond treatment
after six
weeks of marine exposure.
Residual
properties after explosion at present this project is unfunded.
The effect of suffering an explosion on the tensile
strength and fatigue life of steels will be investigated. Steel that has
undergone explosive failure will be compared to steel that has only experienced
high temperature cutting or no external influences. The tensile and fatigue
properties will be compared and related to micro-structural changes from high
strain rate deformation or high temperature exposure. These will be compared to
steel which had not experienced these transient behaviors. The aim is to
determine residual strength levels remaining in structural steel after being
subject to an explosion or fire.
Facilities.
Corrosion
Testing.
Traditional electrochemical testing
facilities such as:-
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.
Potentiodynamic scans.
Cyclic polarization.
Salt Spray.
Stress corrosion.
Hydrogen embrittlement by step loading.
Mechanical
Testing.
Tensile testing up to 10kip.
Fatigue testing up to 50kip.
High temperature fatigue up to 2000F.
Recent Presentations.
Degradation in
Transportation Structural Materials
Patents.
7,101,808
Chromate free method for surface etching of stainless steel.
7,011,254
Chromate free method for surface etching of titanium.
7,001,533
Chromate free method for surface etching of aluminum and aluminum alloys.
6,706,207
Non-chromate metal surface etching solutions.
6,762,238
Water-borne polymeric complex and anti-corrosive composition.
6,150,023
Electroactive polymer coatings for corrosion control.
Location
Room 109,
Crawford Hall, URI,
CONTACT
Richard Brown
401-874-2707.