Modelling Galvanic Corrosion Protection Of Aircraft Structures

BEASY will be presenting a paper at the upcoming DoD Corrosion Conference on a Modelling Approach for Galvanic Corrosion Protection of Multi-material Aircraft Structures. The paper describes developments carried out with co authors EADS and Airbus into developing tools to quickly assess the risk to components and structures of corrosion and the effectiveness of surface protection systems. Galvanic Corrosion is important as it occurs whenever dissimilar metals or certain types of composites (eg carbon based) are located close to each other.

The paper gives an overview of the development and experimental validation of a computational model for simulating galvanic corrosion in specific application case scenarios appearing in an aircraft environment. The focus of the study is thin electrolyte conditions that could occur in the upper part of an aircraft structure. An experimental set-up has been established for validation of the computational results. The validation approach is explained and the results obtained are presented. Good agreement has been obtained between observed and simulated data. The model can be applied to different multi-material combinations relevant for aircraft structures.

For further information, please view the BEASY Corrosion Manager datasheet 

NACE Corrosion 2011

In our last newsletter following the NACE Conference in Houston we highlighted some of the presentations which featured the use of BEASY modelling. In this newsletter, we are pleased to provide details of another paper - by Alotaibi, Al-Shahrani and Alfantazi from the SABIC and the University of British Columbia.

Failure of Magnesium Anodes in Alkaline Solution

Pitting corrosion has been observed in the internal of a tank after only one year of service in a petrochemical plant. The tank was protected by sacrificial magnesium anodes suspended from the roof. The corrosion occurred as a result of the failure of internal Cathodic Protection (CP) through the fast consumption and self corrosion of the magnesium anodes. The analysis of the tank content indicated an alkaline electrolyte with pH 10.5 at 60 0C and high conductivity.

The main objective of this paper is to study the magnesium anode corrosion behaviour in the same solution as the tank by examining polarization behaviour of the magnesium anode in the same solution and by simulating the entire CP system. The possibility of using aluminium anodes in the tank solution was also investigated.

If you missed the last newsletter, please follow the links below to access the earlier papers: