Influence of environmental factors on corrosion damage of aircraft structure

Corrosion is one of the important structural integrity concerns of aging aircraft, and it is estimated that a significant portion of airframe maintenance budgets is directed towards corrosion-related problems for both military and commercial aircraft. In order to better understand how environmental factors influence the corrosion damage initiation and propagation on aircraft structure and to predict pre-corrosion test pieces of fatigue life and structural integrity of an effective approach, this paper uses the cellular automaton (CA) method to character the effect of electrolyte concentrations, dissolution probabilities, and temperature on the corrosion damage of a metal structure exposed to an aggressive environment, and the procedure for applying the local rules between the cells of the CA to simulate the corrosion damage evolution is formulated. The simulation results show that the different electrolyte concentrations, dissolution probabilities and temperature, the laws of the dissolution current with time are investigated and they obey the time power function.

Corrosion damage evolution and residual strength of corroded aluminum alloys

The LY12CZ aluminum alloy specimens were corroded under the conditions of different test temperatures and exposure durations. After corrosion exposure, fatigue tests were performed. Scanning electron microscopy and optical microscope analyses on corrosion damage were carried out. The definition of surface corrosion damage ratio was provided to describe the extent of surface corrosion damage. On the basis of the measured data sets of the corrosion damage ratio, the probabilistic model of corrosion damage evolution was built. The corrosion damage decreased the fatigue life by a factor of about 1.25 to 2.38 and the prediction method of residual strength of the corroded structure was presented.

Corrosion damage assessment and monitoring of large steel space structures

Large steel space structures,when exposed to a harsh corrosive environment,are inevitably subjected to atmospheric corrosion and stress corrosion cracking.This paper proposes a framework for assessing the corrosion damage of large steel space structures subjected to both stress corrosion cracking and atmospheric corrosion.The empirical model for estimating atmospheric corrosion based on measured information is briefly introduced.The proposed framework is applied to a real large steel space structure built in the southern coastal area in China to assess its corrosion damage and investigate the effects of atmospheric corrosion on stress corrosion cracking.Based on the results,the conceptual design of the corrosion monitoring system of large steel space structures is finally conducted as the first step for a real corrosion monitoring system.

Effect of Reinforcement Corrosion Sediment Distribution Characteristics on Concrete Damage Behavior

Reinforcement corrosion directly affects the mechanical behavior of reinforced concrete structures.An electric corrosion test was conducted on a reinforced concrete test specimen,and a finite element model of the reinforcement corrosion damage was established.In addition,the damage behavior of reinforced concrete under different corrosion sediment distribution characteristics and different corrosion rates was studied.It was noted that when corrosion sediments are in a“semiellipse+semicircle”distribution,the results of numerical calculation are consistent with those obtained experimentally,reflecting the damage characteristics of reinforced concrete test specimens.Further,the results showed that the distribution characteristics of corrosion sediments greatly influence the damage behavior of reinforced concrete.In particular,when the corrosion sediments demonstrate a“semiellipse”distribution,reinforced concrete members may easily suffer from reinforcement damages.In the case of“semiellipse+semicircle”and“circle”distributions,the cohesive force between the reinforcements and concrete decreases:With the same corrosion rate,the damaged area expands with the increase in the number of reinforcements,which indicates a reduction in the cohesive force and thus,a reduction in the damage in the reinforcement area.This paper analyzes in-depth the effects of reinforcement corrosion expansion on the concrete damage behavior,provides references for practical engineering.

Durability of Asphalt Mixture in Different Corrosion Solution

The corrosion to asphalt mixture under different kinds of corrosion solution, such as pH=2 solution, pH=12 solution, pH = 12 solution and 10% Na2SO4 solution, was studied. The performance attenuation of asphalt mixture was analyzed under the normal environment and the freeze-thaw environment, and the analysis was given on the sensitivity of the test results to the evaluation index. The experimental results show that the performance of asphalt mixture is attenuated faster under the acidic solution, alkaline solution and sulfate solution. Corrosion factor Kc, freeze-thaw corrosion factor Kf, and freeze-thaw effect factor Kfc are proposed to evaluate asphalt mixture resistance to corrosion in different kinds of corrosion solution. The values of Kc and Kfc decrease with the increasing of corrosion time. The change rule of Kf show that the rate of corrosion is decreased by the action of freeze-thaw in acidic solution and in alkaline solution, but is increased by the action of freeze-thaw in sulfate solution. The microscopic analysis indicates that acid solution reacts with aggregate of asphalt mixture, alkaline solution reacts with asphalt cement of asphalt mixture, the surface tension of sulfate solution and crystallization of sulfate are the main reasons which weak the performance of asphalt mixture.

A swallow-tail type catastrophic model of earthquake process

This paper considers the effects of damage softening and hydraulic softening on fault zone media and provides a nonlinear mechanics model of fault earthquake. Taking far field displacement,stiffness ratio and permeation parameter as control variables, we obtain a swallowtail type catastrophic model of earthquakes. Then, by this model, we study the effects of permeation, far field displacement and stiffness ratio on the preparation and the occurrence of earthquakes.

Time-Dependent Reliability Analysis of Offshore Structures

During the life of an offshore structure, its structural strength declines due to various kinds of damages related to the time factor. In this paper, four major kinds of damages, including damages caused by fatigue, dent, corrosion and marine life, are discussed. Based on these analyses, formulas for the evaluation of the damaged structure reliability are derived. Furthermore the computer program ISM for the analysis of structural reliability is developed by the use of Advanced First Order Second Moment method and Monte-Carlo Importance Sampling method. The reliability of a turbular joint and a beam are studied as numerical examples. The results show that the theory and the analysis method given in this paper are reasonable and effective.

Stress-strain Model of Corroded Concrete under Uniaxial Compressive Loading

The prism specimens of corroded concrete were subjected to uniaxial compressive load to develop the stress-strain model. Compared to the un-corroded concrete, the mechanical prop- erties of corroded concrete, such as peak strength, Young＇s modulus, and residual deformation, et al are degraded. The concrete, which were subjected to the aggressive media in the environment, were resulted in randomly distributed pre-loading flaws and defects. The propagation of these corrosion flaws during the procedure of loading was the main reason of degradation of corroded concrete properties. By the application of the statistic theory of continuum damage, the compressive stress-strain curve of corroded concrete was simulated. The initial damage factor was introduced to represent the corrosive effects of different media. The present damage constitutive model agreed well with the test results.

Principles and methods for determining calendar life and corrosion tolerance of mechanical parts

In order to facilitate the determination of the calendar life of mechanical parts,the author summarized his relevant research papers that had studied for many years as eight distinct topics:(A).The principle and method for compiling the equal-damage temperature and humidity spectrum;(B).The principle for preparing the high concentration medium solution;(C).The principle and method for determining the metal calendar life;(D).The principle and method for determining the protective coating calendar life;(E).The principle and method for determining the total calendar life;(F).The principle of the reliability processing;(G).The principle and method for determining the corrosion damage tolerance;(H).The principle and matching design method to ensure that the total fatigue life and the total calendar life of the mechanical part were safe simultaneously.The above contents established a complete set of theoretical systems and methods for determining the calendar life.