The preparers of this course are indebted to the various researchers and authors

of papers, presentations and books in the area of corrosion, electrochemical

methods, NDE, monitoring methods and the strategies of maintenance to understand
and to control corrosion.
The material presented in this course is not original work by
preparers, but rather an integration from source material from
engineers, scientists and managers in this area.

the
the

course
best

Welcome to the introduction to the Corrosion 202 course.

This course will include the following four segments:
1. Corrosion Management including the topics: Inspectability, and Inspection
Strategies
2. Corrosion monitoring
3. Inspection techniques, and
4. Failure analysis.
If you have not completed the Corrosion 201 course, which covered the basic
science of corrosion, you may want to review that material now.
The goals of this lesson are to provide a basic understanding of corrosion and
approaches to corrosion management. Having this exposure to the impact of
corrosion on the performance and safety of DoD equipment, you will be better
prepared for design, material selection, inspection, monitoring and maintenance
of DoD weapon systems, support equipment and infrastructure.

Welcome to the Corrosion 202A course, which discusses the various approaches of
Corrosion Management.
First, we will briefly review several of the fundamental concepts of corrosion.
Second, we will examine Corrosion detectability and establish
assessing corrosion flaws, failures and their consequences.

the

basis

for

The concepts of Probability of Failure (POF) and Probability of Detection (POD)

will be introduced. The forms of corrosion will be covered with special focus on
the detectability of various types of corrosion damage. We will see how the
various forms of corrosion may be classified in several different ways as an aid
in identifying the form of corrosion present.
Questions to be answered are:
1. Is the form of corrosion uniform or localized?
2. Can the form of corrosion be identified macroscopically or must we use
microscopic or other analytical tools?
3. Corrosion inspection and monitoring are maintenance tasks, that should be
designed to provide information to general management and those managers
responsible for the operation of systems.
We will review the maintenance strategies as they are evolving from corrective to
predictive and increasingly focus on risk-based assessments. The concepts of life
cycle assessment and asset management will be reviewed in relation to inspection
strategies and key performance indicators. The principles of risk-based
inspection and various risk assessment methodologies will be discussed.

Corrosion is the destruction or deterioration

of a material due to its reaction within its
environment. The definition is not limited to
metals and includes: ceramics, plastics,
rubber, composites and other non-metallic
materials. For example, deterioration of
paint or other non-metallic compounds by
sunlight or chemicals.

There are at least four reasons to study corrosion.

First reason is Safety A number of weapon system and infrastructure mishaps
have been attributed to the effects of corrosion. For example,
corroded
electrical contacts on F-16s caused uncommanded fuel valve closures with
subsequent loss of aircraft. Corrosion-related cracking of F/A-18 landing gears
resulted in failures (collapses) during carrier operations.

The failure of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio

River on Route 35 in 1967 was attributed to preexisting cracks from manufacture that propagated
to failure due to the combination of corrosion
fatigue
and
stress
corrosion
cracking
mechanisms.
Readiness is the second reason - Weapons System
and
infrastructure
support
activities
are
routinely out of commission due to corrosion deficiencies. For example, corrosion
has been identified as the reason for more than 50% of the maintenance needed on
KC-135 aircraft to date.
Third reason: Finance and Resources- The cost of corrosion to the DoD has been
determined to be greater than $20 billion annually.
And finally, the fourth reason: Performance- Approximately 70% of the cost of
corrosion is a result of decisions made in the design phase in the product
development cycle. The Boeing 737 lost a portion of its upper fuselage in Hawaii
in 1988 due to the interaction of a corrosive media, salty air, and fatigue. The
over-all mechanism is corrosion fatigue.
We will discuss this more later in the course.

The four fundamental requirements for corrosion are: an anode, a cathode, an

electrolyte, and current must flow. Corrosion occurs at the anode. Corrosion
control is based on the various ways to remove or hinder one of the four
requirements for corrosion cited above. For example, a paint may act to keep the
corrosive environment from coming in contact with the metal. We may store
aircraft in Arizona to benefit from the low humidity and essentially stop
atmospheric corrosion. We might wash our automobiles to reduce or to eliminate
dirt or mud. The dirt or mud can serve as media to produce differential aeration
cells that can result in pitting and crevice corrosion under the dirt. We zinc
plate the inside layer of steel door panels to extend the length of time before
perforation. We will be aware of the differences between using zinc versus
chromium plating as ways to protect steel from corrosion. A scratch in the
coating can result in an unfavorable area effect if the plating is noble to the
metal.
We will now look at the detectability of the various forms of corrosion.

Corrosion damage, defects, and failures can have all sorts of consequences on the
operation of a system.

A universal representation, shown here, describes the interactions between

defects, faults, and failures of a system. The arrows in this figure imply that
quantifiable relations possibly exist between a defect, a fault, and a failure.

In materials, a defect is any microstructural feature representing a disruption

in the perfect arrangement of atoms in a crystalline material. There are
imperfections in all man-made material structures. Defects are not necessarily
flaws, but they can serve as initiation sites for actual faults and subsequent
failures. The growth of a defect into what becomes a fault depends on the form of
corrosion.
From fault tree analysis, the fault event is defined as a state transition from a
normal state to a faulty state. The state transition is irreversible. Corrosion
processes are irreversible. Corrosion faults in an electronic component, where a
small amount of surface corrosion can exist, dramatically alter the intended
behavior of the component.

Connector corrosion is well understood as an age-related problem that contributes

greatly to electrical wiring failures. Connector corrosion is also the prime
suspect in several military and commercial aircraft incidents and accidents.

Fretting corrosion in electronic components is the result of flaking of tin oxide

from a mated surface on tin-containing contacts. This problem has occurred more
often as tin replaced gold as a cheaper plating material. Fretting corrosion
between these very small contacts was implicated in at least six F-16 fighter
aircraft crashes when their main fuel shut-off valves closed uncommanded.
An example of a failed tin-plated pin corrosion of an F-16 actuator is shown
here.

A failure is an unsatisfactory condition or deviation from the

original
condition. The determination that a condition is unsatisfactory depends on the
failure consequences in a given application. For maintenance purposes, failures
may be further classified as either functional or potential failures.
A potential failure is a detectable symptom or warning sign that indicates when a
functional failure is imminent. The fact that potential failures can
be
identified is important to modern maintenance practice. It permits maximum use of
each system without the consequences associated with a functional failure. Units
can be removed or repaired prior to functional failure. An example of a potential
failure is the hard starting of your car on a cold morning due to a failing
battery.

A functional failure is the point where an asset fails to perform a required

function. The failure can be a complete or partial failure of any primary or
secondary system function. An example of a complete failure is a bearing seizing
in a fan motor and causing the fan to stop. An example of a partial failure is a
worn impeller in a pump that still pumps fluid but not to the required level.
In some cases, when safety is a concern, the functional failure may not be the
actual failure point but a predetermined point that should not be exceeded due to
the risk involved. An example of this would be a preset temperature in a car
engine. This temperature is lower than the point where the engine would sustain
critical damage. The actual failure would be the loss of the engine, but the
catastrophic nature of that failure requires an identification prior to the point
of shutdown. This becomes the functional failure of the engine.

The importance of the potential failure is to use an inspection to detect the

potential failure before the functional failure occurs.

A graphical representation of the Potential-Functional interval is displayed. The

vertical axis is the functional capability of the asset and the horizontal axis
is the operating age or number of cycles. As the life of the asset ages, it will
come to a point where the symptom appears. This is the potential failure. After
the symptom appears, there will be a period until the functional failure occurs.
This period is the P-F interval. As we look ahead to various inspection and
monitoring techniques, we will characterize the various forms of corrosion,
potential failure systems, as early as possible to maximize the P-F Interval.
And, we would like to understand the predictive technology that will let us
calculate the time from Potential to Functional failure.

The consequences of a failure may range from replacing a failed component to the
destruction of a piece of equipment and the loss of life. The consequence of
failure then determines the priority of maintenance or possible redesign to avoid
the failure. Corrosion has many serious economic, health, safety, and
technological consequences.
Safety Consequences - Safety is the first consideration in evaluating a failure
possibility. Does the failure cause a loss of function or secondary damage that
could have a direct adverse effect on operating safety? Corrosion of structures
can be a significant problem. Safety can be compromised by corrosion contributing
to failures of bridges, aircraft, automobiles, gas pipelines, etc. Different
corrosion mechanisms can produce different morphologies of damage. The difference
in the release rate created at a pinhole leak or a large rupture can be
significant.
Operational Consequences - an operational failure occurs when the need to correct
a failure disrupts planned operations. Operational consequences include the need
to abort an operation, the delay or cancellation to make unanticipated repairs,
or the need for operating restrictions until repairs can be made.
Nonoperational Consequences a functional failure that has no direct adverse
effect on operational capability. For example, the failure of a navigational unit
on an aircraft with a redundant navigation system. Since other units can provide
the lost function, the failed unit can be replaced at a later time.
Hidden Failure Consequences - a failure mode is defined as hidden when a
component is required to perform its function and the occurrence of the failure
is not evident to operating personnel. Hidden failures are typically failures of
one or more components aligned in parallel with no indication of failure for each
individual component. One of the two components could fail but since each one by
itself can satisfy the function, only when the second one fails will the
functional failure become evident.

The following failures have been selected as examples of documented corrosionrelated failures. These accidents could have been prevented if proper inspection
and maintenance had been carried out.

F-16: The F-16 electrical connection failure caused by fretting corrosion and
subsequent loss of conductivity across connector pins that then closed the main
fuel shutoff valve.
Aloha Boeing 737 Incident: The structural failure on April 28, 1988 of a 19-year
old Boeing 737, operated by Aloha airlines.

Causes of failure. Multi-site damage: Fatigue

fastener holes, crevice corrosion and pillowing.

cracks

emanating

from

adjacent

Pillowing is the bowing out of the skin due to the volumetric expansion of the
corrosion products between the mating fuselage skins. Failure to detect the
corrosion damage present.
This accident may have been the defining event in creating awareness of aging
aircraft in both the public domain and in the aviation community and the effect
of corrosion on the crack growth rate in fatigue. The plane and the subject lap
joints were exposed to atmospheric corrosion.
Atmospheric corrosion can be
defined as the corrosion of materials exposed to air and its pollutants rather
than immersed in a liquid.

Three classical patterns of failure are for failure rate versus time.

Pattern A is referred to as the bathtub curve. Region 1 infant mortality high

Probability of Failure (POF). Region 2 - constant and relatively low POF. Region
3 - wearout region with high POF.

Pattern B is a region of
pronounced wearout region.

gradually

increasing

failure

rate

followed

by

Pattern C is a gradually increasing failure rate with no pronounced wearout

region.
Since corrosion is an aging process, it typically follows Pattern B.
A
maintenance strategy with such a pattern of failure would be to remove and
replace the component before it went into the wearout stage. Inspection and
monitoring are to identify faults before they can progress into the wearout
region with a high probability of failure. A similar remove and replace strategy
for Pattern C without a pronounced wearout region might not be beneficial.
In systematic studies of failure pattern of airline components, a large fraction
of the items studied had no wear out zone. Therefore, their performance could not
be improved by removing and replacing those items after a specific time usage.

In corrosion-related failures, two factors must be considered: The first, what

are the forms of corrosion and their rates? The second, what is the possible
effectiveness of corrosion inspection or monitoring?
In the remainder of this course, we will be exploring the various techniques to
inspect and monitor corrosion. We will look at physical, electrochemical and
surface techniques.
The POD Concept is well accepted for Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE). Applying
the POD concept to corrosion is more difficult because of the various forms of
corrosion and their effects: such as thinning, pitting, crack formation,
embrittlement, etc.

Probability of Detection (POD) Curve for cracks not corrosion.

This curve shows the results of inspection of an aluminum alloy stringerstiffened panel using hand ultrasonic technique to measure crack depth. The
probability of detection is plotted versus the actual crack depth. As the actual
crack depths are deeper, the POD is higher. The crack depth, which has a 90%
probability with a 95% confidence, is 0.12 cm.
We would also like to have a POD for corrosion; however, corrosion may appear in
various forms depending on the alloy, product form, environment, general
conditions, and unacceptable residual stresses. These factors complicate the
metrics of corrosion and therefore also complicate the quantification
of
detection reliability.
To measure the degree of pitting (depth, density, shapes) would be considerably
different than for uniform corrosion (thinning) and the other forms of corrosion.
In a following section, we will review the various forms of corrosion and their
respective defining characteristics, which will challenge us to inspect, monitor
and to interpret the results. We will then look at Maintenance, Management and
Inspection Strategies.

Mars G. Fontana and Norbert D. Greene at Ohio State University in their book
Corrosion Engineering first classified corrosion into eight forms. For each form
of corrosion, they showed the appearance, discussed the mechanism and identified
approaches to control that form of corrosion. Others have expanded the number of
forms of corrosion and regrouped by the ease of recognition.
Classification is based on identifying the forms of corrosion by visual
observation with either the naked eye or magnification. The morphology of the
attack is the basis for classification.
Twelve forms of corrosion are identified in the figure. An appreciation of the
appearance of the various forms of corrosion will be helpful as we consider
various approaches to inspect for and to monitor corrosion.

The forms of corrosion can also be classified by whether the corrosion is uniform
or localized. The various forms of localized corrosion can be further classified
by the magnification at which they are viewed.

Macroscopic forms of corrosion affect greater areas of corroded metal and are
generally observable with the naked eye or with a magnifying lens. In the
microscopic case, the amount of metal dissolved may be small and yet considerable
damage can occur before it is visible to the naked eye.

The degree of localization is an important aspect of any form of corrosion.

Corrosion
severity
usually
increases
with
the
degree
of
localization.
Detectability of corrosion defects decreases with the degree of localization.

The pie chart displays the failure statistics of the various forms of corrosion
in
a
chemical
plant.
Other
industries,
such
as,
aerospace,
airlines,
infrastructure, military (AF, Navy, Army, Marines, and Coast Guard) may have
different distributions of the forms of corrosion experienced.

On the next chart, the various forms of corrosion will be briefly reviewed with
regards to inspectability and monitoring issues. This chart will also serve as
index to introduce some supplementary ideas or concepts for several of the forms
of corrosion.
Uniform Least threatening type of attack. An example is the uniform thinning of
a sheet.
Pitting often associated with crack initiation and other forms of corrosion:
intergranular, crevice, exfoliation. Pitting can be assessed by various methods:
visual exam of corroded component or localized NDE methods. Reason to reject an
alloy during the design phase for pressure vessels if the alloy has a propensity
for pitting.

Crevice - Crevice corrosion forms between mating surfaces, lap joints and loosefitting washers and gaskets.
Galvanic - the relative tendencies of metals to corrode tend to remain about the
same in many of the environments in which they are likely to be used.
Consequently, their relative positions in a galvanic series may be about the same
in many environments. Since more observations of potentials and galvanic behavior
have been made in seawater than in any other single environment, an arrangement
of metals in a galvanic series based on observations in seawater, is frequently
used as a first approximation of the probable direction of the galvanic effects
in other environments.

Erosion-corrosion - as the flow of a liquid phase becomes turbulent the liquid

impinges on the surface to remove the naturally formed thin protective film.
Fretting- abrasive oxide particles can form as asperities are scrubbed off.
Intergranular - classical cases of intergranular corrosion of 18-8 stainless
steel called Weld Decay and Knife Like Attack have occurred as a result of
welding and improper post-weld heat treatments. Intergranular corrosion in some
stainless steels occurs as a result of localized depletion of chromium due to the
formation of carbides.
Dealloying - localized corrosion with selective removal of one of the elements of
an alloy.

The schematic S-N curves represent the cyclic loading of a test sample to failure
at various stress levels. The dashed line shows the stress versus the number of
cycles when the test is conducted in air. The higher the stress; the fewer number
of cycles to failure. At a stress of 120 MPa tested in air, the sample would in
principle not fail. If the corrosion fatigue test was conducted in tap water at a
stress of 120 MPa, the sample would fail at less than 10^6 load cycles.

(a) is the schematic plot of the logarithm of the cyclic crack growth rate,
da/dN, as a function of the logarithm of the stress intensity range, K, showing
the threshold stress intensity factor Kth for fatigue and the critical stress
intensity, KIc,for fast fracture in an inert environment.
K is equal to Kmax minus Kmin.
At a stress intensity below the threshold stress, Kth, no crack growth occurs.
At a stress intensity greater than Kth, the crack growth is described by the
Paris Equation, da/dN = C(K)^n. At a stress intensity greater than KIc,
fracture toughness, fracture occurs.
(b) Shows the schematic plot of the logarithm of the cyclic crack growth rate,
da/dN, as a function of the logarithm of the maximum stress intensity, Kmax,
showing the effect of corrosion environment on corrosion fatigue performance. For
stress intensity above the threshold stress, Kth, the cyclic crack grow rate
would be considerably higher in corrosive versus an inert environment; therefore,
corrosion fatigue occurs.

The three groups of major factors affecting SCC susceptibility are shown in the
graphic.

Material variables are important in determining SCC resistance. Microstructural

modifications introduced by heat treatment can alter the SCC resistance, such as,
sensitization of stainless steels.
Stress the time to failure caused by the propagation of cracks under constant
load tends to increase with decreasing stress until a threshold stress is
reached. The stress can be due to applied stresses and/or residual stresses
caused by manufacturing processes such as welding, machining, and heat treatment.
Environment major factors of the environment include such variables as chemical
composition, pH, temperature, flow rate, etc.
The most important parameter for monitoring SCC is the crack growth rate.

Schematic plot of crack propagation only occurs when the stress intensity is
above the threshold stress intensity value Kiscc. Crack growth rate increases
rapidly with increasing KI above KIscc value (Stage 1) until a plateau is reached
and the crack growth rate becomes independent of KI (Stage 2). The critical
stress intensity, KIc , for fast fracture in air is also indicated.

SCC: Environmental-Alloy Combinations

This chart lists some environments in which SCC has been observed for some of the
alloys for the systems listed.

Hydrogen damage is close to SCC, but is caused only by hydrogen atoms, molecules,
and tensile stress. It includes: hydrogen induced cracking, stress oriented
hydrogen induced cracking & sulfide stress cracking.
Cracking occurring because of hydrogen is, also called hydrogen embrittlement or
hydrogen cracking.
The sources of hydrogen are cleaning with acid, thermal dissociation of water in
metallurgical processes, decomposition of gases, cathodic protection, galvanic
plating, and some other corrosion reactions.
All types of hydrogen damage occur in stages:
1. Formation of hydrogen atoms and their adsorption on metal surfaces.
2. Diffusion of adsorbed hydrogen atoms into the metallic lattice.
3. Accumulation of hydrogen atoms inside metals
4. leading to increased internal pressure, and thus to blistering or cracks.
Hydrogen blistering (HIC) is the accumulation of hydrogen molecules, H2, inside
metals and the formation of blisters because of large hydrogen pressure.
Stepwise cracking (SWC) is a form of blistering in which laminating-type fissures
parallel to the metal surface link in the through surface direction.
Stress-oriented HIC is a variation of HIC, where the laminations are arranged in
parallel arrays perpendicular to the surface of the metal.
SSC is a form of hydrogen embrittlement that occurs in the presence of hydrogen
sulfide. In some cases, an alloy embrittled with hydrogen can be restored by
removing the hydrogen through baking.

Hydrogen Embrittlement Effect of Thermal Treatment

For 4340, a low alloy high strength steel, the time-temperature combination would
be selected to remove the hydrogen without excessive tempering of the alloy.

Environmental cracking (EC) is a very acute form of localized corrosion. Because

of the intrinsic complexity of the situations leading to different forms of EC,
the parameters leading to this class of problems have often been described in
qualitative terms such as those in this table.
The factors are listed that contribute to one of three forms of environmental
cracking: stress corrosion cracking (SCC), fatigue corrosion and hydrogen damage
(embrittlement).

Corrosion is one of the major limiters of the life of various DoD structures and
systems. The cost of corrosion annually for the DoD is tens of billions.
Corrosion can have an effect on a system throughout its life from design and
development,
through
acquisition,
operations,
sustainment
and
retirement.
Selection of materials is frequently driven by the need for greater strength,
lower strength-to-weight ratios, lower costs in production, and lower ownership
costs.
Corrosion may be included in trade studies but is not necessarily a primary
driver in design goals; therefore,
1. It is essential that an integrated set of precautions, evaluations and
provisions be included as appropriate in the life cycle management process
to manage the impact of corrosion.
2. A Corrosion Prevention and Control plan should be considered during the
Acquisition Phase.
3. The best opportunity to reduce the costs of corrosion is in the initial
design of the system or vehicle.

The importance of both acquisition and sustainment is depicted in this graphic.

65 to 80 percent of a systems life-cycle costs occur in the sustainment phase.

However, most of the decisions (for example, material selection, component
reliability, design maintainability) are determined during the acquisition phase.

So one of my first jobs working for the Air Force was to start worrying about
corrosion. I actually got assigned to a corrosion organization in the laboratory
here at Wright-Patterson Air Force base. It was kind of interesting though seeing
that the magnitude of the problems early on of my career; I didnt have a good
sense of all this but you really learn quickly the impact in terms of cost and
energy required to prevent corrosion for airplanes.
One of the first jobs I had was working on the C-5 airplane back when it was
still in the early design phases. In that time, there was a great awareness about
the importance of this problem and the impact it could have on system performance
in the long time.
We had written into a lot of those early specifications, the requirements to do
certain things to prevent aircraft corrosion in the future. And I think it is
very important.
We had specifications written. We had lessons learned put together and we made
them all part of the contractual effort at that time. So it resulted in the
contractors paying attention to this early on. The other thing we did back then,
which I think is really important is we created something called Corrosion
Control Boards where we had, I would say subject matter experts maybe 8 to 10 of
them from the government, few of them from the contractors and we would review
every drawing release and look at it in terms of its corrosion. We would conduct
design reviews as part of the normal design review process. There are always
sessions dedicated to what are you doing to protect against corrosion. And I
always thought those boards were really important because they brought attention
to the designers, the guys who were making the day-to-day decisions on whether or
not you use this material or that material, or whether you use this coating or
that coating. They have people knowledgeable about the subject sitting down with
the designers at the right time early on because thats where all the main
decisions are made about what the long-term corrosion effects will gonna be.
I like to tell a story, though despite how good I thought we were doing at the
time. We did make some errors. And Ill never forget one time; we were sitting in
the designer room for the landing gear on the C-5. Now, things that you dont
know much about the C-5, theres something called the yoke of the landing gear.
Its a huge piece of aluminum. I mean its really huge. Its the main loadbearing member of the landing gear for the C-5.
And the contractor because they were interested in saving weight, they want to
make it out of this, an alloy called 7075-T6 aluminum and that was probably the

highest strength, lowest weight producing alloy you can get at the time. But we
all knew it is also very prone to stress corrosion cracking.
That led to a lot of other things subsequently through the 70s and 80s. We start
putting a lot of emphasis on putting in the requirements in the specifications
and standards that the Air Force used at that time, requirements for corrosion
prevention and corrosion control.
Early on in the design process is the most important thing you could think
about. We think about the corrosion; material selection is important. Not only
what material you pick but how do you treat the material. You have painting; you
have plating, anodizing, all these techniques. Theyre all really important and
the only problem is - there is some of them who are expensive too. But I think my
experience is if youre willing to invest that kind of money upfront, the longterm payoffs are there.
Theres been some change recently probably within the last year about how the
Air Force is gonna worry about the managing of systems in the future. We used to
have an organization here in Wright-Patterson called the Aeronautical Systems
Center. They bought all the airplanes for the United States Air Force. It was in
fact an acquisition center.
I was the Executive Director; I was the senior civilian for that organization
for 5 or 6 years and I learned a lot at that time. One of the things I learned is
unless these people who run these programs and they are all really good people
have very well documented requirements for them to follow, not much is gonna
happen. Theyre scored on how they beat the requirements in their program
management director and nothing else.
One of the things Im hoping starting to happen when they make this change from
an acquisition organization to what we call a life cycle management organization
is that they now have to start thinking broader. They cant just think about
well lets build this airplane cheap as fastest way we possible can, turn it
over to some other organization like a logistics center and let them worry about
the sustainment cost to it. You cant do that anymore. You got to think of the
whole life cycle of the airplane and I think thats gonna be a tremendous help.
So how do you do that? How do you worry about sustainment, at the front of the
airplane design and all through the life cycle? Thats gonna be a tough issue to
deal with?
I think the way theyre gonna do it and I dont know for sure yet but one of the
ways I think can be done is to building Instructional Management systems. We have
a very good instructional management system today for fatigue and life of
fatigue-based and structurally-based. We dont have a good life cycle management

system in place for corrosion. The hope is the two could be married somehow
or another, that you could in fact do structure monitoring, structure
maintenance, structure control and do corrosion control at the same time. That
remains to be seen but thats one of the hopes I think we have.

Four general types of maintenance philosophies or strategies can be identified,

namely corrective, preventive, predictive, and reliability centered maintenance.
Predictive maintenance is the most recent development. In practice, all of these
types are used in maintaining engineering systems. The challenge is to optimize
the balance between these types for maximum profitability. In general, corrective
maintenance is the least cost effective option when maintenance requirements are
high.
Preventive Maintenance. In preventive maintenance, equipment is repaired and
serviced before failure occurs. The frequency of maintenance activities is predetermined by schedules. Preventive maintenance aims to eliminate unnecessary
inspection and maintenance tasks, to implement additional maintenance tasks when
and where needed, and to focus efforts on the most critical items. The higher the
failure consequences, the greater the level of preventive maintenance that is
justified. This ultimately implies a trade-off between the cost of performing
preventive maintenance and the cost to run the equipment to failure.
Corrective maintenance refers to an action only taken when a system or component
failure has occurred. It is thus a retroactive strategy. The task of the
maintenance team in this scenario is usually to effect repairs as soon as
possible. Costs associated with corrective maintenance include repair costs and
loss of operational readiness. To minimize the effects of lost production and to
speed up repairs, actions such as increasing the size of maintenance teams, the
use of back-up systems, and implementation of emergency procedures can be
considered. Unfortunately, such measures are relatively costly and/or only
effective in the short-term.

Inspection assumes a crucial role in preventive

Components are essentially inspected for corrosion and
intervals, in order to identify corrective action before
Preventive maintenance performed at regular intervals
reduced failure rates.

maintenance strategies.
other damage at planned
failures actually occur.
will usually result in

As significant costs are involved in performing preventive maintenance,

especially in the terms of scheduled downtime - good planning is vital.

Predictive
or
Condition-based
Maintenance.
Predictive maintenance refers to maintenance based
on
the
actual
condition
of
a
component.
Maintenance is not performed according to fixed
preventive schedules but rather when a certain
change in characteristics is noted. Corrosion
sensors supplying diagnostic information on the
condition of a system or component play an
important role in this maintenance strategy.
A useful analogy can be made with automobile oil changes. Changing the oil every
5000 km to prolong engine life, irrespective of whether the oil change is really
needed or not, is a preventive maintenance strategy.
Predictive maintenance would entail changing the oil based on changes in its
properties, such as the buildup of wear debris. When a car is used exclusively
for long distance highway travel and driven in a very responsible manner, oil
analysis may indicate a longer critical service interval. Some of the resources
required to perform predictive maintenance will be available from the reduction
in breakdown maintenance and the increased utilization that results from proactive planning and scheduling.

Good record keeping is very important to identifying repetitive problems, and the
problem areas with the highest potential impact.

Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) takes Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM)

to the next level and condition-based maintenance, you're in a more of a reactive
mode - you see a failure and youre going to correct that.
With reliability-centered maintenance, youre taking a look at the actual parts
and trying to do and find methods and processes to increase the reliability so
you do not have these failures again in the future. Its a process that started
back in the 60s and it takes a more in-depth look to try to find the methods and
processes to increase the reliability which has impacts, again, on the
availability and the over-all system performance.

One of the foundations of our Corrosion Prevention and Control (also known as
CPAC) is Identify, Correct and Maintain. Basically, we identify our different
category codes of corrosion from 1-5:

One being a pristine asset. Two, that it requires organizational corrosion

prevention and control which the corrosion service teams can accomplish. And
categories 3 and 4 - is beyond the organizational level or it has to be
completely blasted and repainted. And this capability, when a vehicle reaches
categories 3 or 4, it is sent to the corrosion repair facility. As a part of the
whole identify, correct or maintain, once weve identified the corrosion we work
to correct it via the corrosion service teams or the corrosion repair facility
which is the blast and paint facility. Either way, we have a pristine asset
thats now a category 1. And the final element is to maintain it, which we use
through our dehumidified shelters or Transhield covers leaving the assets ready
for the war fighter in a ready-to-roll condition.

Life cycle management aim is to maximize a return on the investment in assets by

providing comprehensive information about their condition and value throughout
their life. The emphasis is not on short-term costs of an asset but rather on the
total value (performance) throughout its entire life. Life cycle asset management
focuses on the application of three basic facility management tools: life cycle
costing, condition assessment, and prioritization.
Life Cycle Cost Analysis. A structured methodology to determine the total cost of
assets or systems over their service life. In practice, defining and controlling
life cycle costs may be difficult. The future behavior of materials is often
uncertain, as is the future use of most systems, and the environmental conditions
to which they may be exposed.
An effective life cycle cost analysis depends on having a reasonable range of
possible alternatives that are likely to deliver equally satisfactory service
over a given service life.

Condition assessment uses a systematic condition assessment survey to obtain

comprehensive data about the condition of an asset. The survey is used to
predict: maintenance requirements, remaining service life, long-term maintenance,
replacement strategies, and future usage. Condition assessment surveys provide
the data to permit financial resource allocation for maintenance and replacement
of assets.
Prioritization. Prioritizing maintenance activities employ a methodical approach
in contrast to a reactive short-term approach. Each maintenance action is
evaluated against pre-established values and attributes. This approach usually
involves a system to ensure that the most critical work receives priority
attention.

Inspection consists of the following actions: measurement and comparison with a

specification; judging conformance; classification of conforming and nonconforming cases; and recording and reporting the data obtained. When different
inspection techniques can be used, the choice of a specific schedule will depend
on the accuracy, speed, and relative costs of the various inspection techniques.
What to Inspect? The selection of the components, parts, or systems that should
be inspected is key. This selection should also be based on a thorough
understanding of the system, materials and processes used, awareness of the
mechanical and environmental stresses, and field experience or history.
Knowing where to expect a potential failure from mechanical predictive technology
improves the chances of finding the defect that may progress to failure.

Historical data gathered during previous inspection and repair cycles can be
quite useful to determine the particular locations where future maintenance
actions should be focused.

For example, more than 50 years of service data collected for the P-3 maritime
patrol and antisubmarine warfare aircraft has resulted in the identification of
`hot spots that should be monitored as part of a predictive maintenance regime.
The benefits of identifying hot spots result in improved probability of detection
of defects.

When to inspect requires a thorough understanding of the structure or system to

include operational environment, structural and corrosive intensity, inspection
reliability, and the preventative maintenance plan. Inspection of fracturecritical parts will depend on predictive technologies such as
structural
integrity programs using fracture mechanics and nondestructive inspection.
Historical data gathered during previous inspection and repair cycles can be
quite useful to determine when and where future maintenance actions should be
focused.

Corrosion Inspection or Monitoring? Corrosion inspection and monitoring are used

to determine the condition of a system and to determine how well corrosion
control and maintenance programs are performing.
Inspection. Corrosion Inspection refers to the process to determine the existence
or extent of corrosion of a component at one point in time compared to a standard
or predicted behavior. Inspection techniques may vary from simple visual
inspection to nondestructive inspections. Inspection techniques should have
sufficient precision to detect defects before failure or continued growth before
the next inspection.

Corrosion monitoring. In comparison to the short term testing in corrosion

inspection, corrosion monitoring occurs over a longer period of time and in some
cases, over the life of the system. Corrosion monitoring might be considered an
in-service corrosion tester. We would envision it somewhat differently if we are
monitoring a chemical plant, pipeline, off-shore tower, bridge or aeroplane.
For a chemical plant, we may monitor a process to: identify a corrosion problem,
monitor corrosion control inhibitor additions, exercise process control,
establish a maintenance schedule and provide data to our predictive models for
prediction of useful life.
For an aircraft, we might use a sensor to evaluate environment-severity of
various locations and missions to determine wash schedules, use of corrosion
preventative compounds or sheltering.

Risk-Based Inspection. Risk-based inspection refers to the application of risk

analysis principles to manage inspection programs for components or systems. The
goal of RBI is to develop a cost-effective inspection and maintenance program
that provides assurance of acceptable mechanical integrity and reliability.
Risk is defined as the combination of probability and consequences.
Risk based inspection procedures
quantitative methodologies.

can

be

based

on

either

qualitative

or

Risk Based Inspection schemes are a planning tool used to develop the optimum
plan for the execution of inspection activities.
A risk-based approach to inspection planning is used to:
Ensure risk is reduced to as low as reasonably practical
Optimize the inspection schedule
Focus inspection effort onto the most critical areas
Identify and use the most appropriate methods.

Event tree analysis (ETA) is a logical representation of the various events that
may be triggered by an initiating event, such as a component failure.

Data required for developing a risk assessment program are often acquired during
the analysis of failed components and systems.
However, conducting a failure analysis is not an easy or straightforward task.
Early recognition of corrosion as a factor in a failure is critical, since much
important corrosion information can be lost if a failure scene is altered or
changed before appropriate observations and tests can be made. To avoid these
pitfalls, certain systematic procedures have been proposed to guide an
investigator through the failure analysis process.
The process of failure analysis will be presented in a later section of the
course.

FMEA and FMECA - are inductive failure analyses used in product development,
systems engineering, and operations management analysis of failure modes within a
system for classification by the severity and likelihood of the failures.

Fault Tree Analysis is a top down, deductive failure analysis in which an

undesirable state of a system is analyzed using Boolean logic to combine a series
of lower-level events. This analysis method is mainly used in the field of
Reliability Engineering to determine the probability of a safety accident or a
particular system level, or functional failure.

HAZOP - is a structured, systematic examination of a planned or existing process

or operation in order to identify and evaluate problems that may represent risks
to personnel or equipment, or prevent efficient operation.

Risk matrices provide a framework for an explicit examination of the frequency

and consequences of hazards. This may be used to rank them in order of
significance, screen out insignificant ones, or evaluate the need for risk
reduction of each hazard.

In summary, a basic understanding of corrosion and approaches to corrosion

management have been provided. Various forms of corrosion and their recognition
and inspectability have been explored; including different risk assessment
methods. Maintenance strategies in acquisition and sustainment phases of a system
life cycle were discussed.