NASA Expands Test Facility
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Nickel Development Institute consultants R. W. Ross, D.J. Tilllack, and G.
B. Elder at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida  |
 Improving the safety and reliability of launch structures and ground support equipment is the goal of NASA's Corrosion Test Site |
Nickel magazine, Jun. 01 -- The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) in the U.S., has expanded its Kennedy Space Centre Beach Corrosion
Test Site. The site now includes an atmospheric test site, an on-site corrosion laboratory, work shop, and a
continuously flowing natural seawater immersion facility.
Results from test work at the site helps NASA find new materials and processes that increase the safety and
reliability of their launch structures and ground support equipment.
Over the years, materials failures were attributed to the various forms of corrosion; e.g., atmospheric corrosion, stress corrosion cracking, pitting corrosion, crevice corrosion, intergranular corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement, corrosion fatigue.
To address these issues, the Beach Corrosion Test Site was established in the 1960s to conduct basic and applied research to identify technologies that will prevent such failures. Current research projects include conductive polymer coating research, environmentally compliant coating system research, seawater immersion of metallic alloys and coatings, stress corrosion cracking studies, reinforced concrete protection research, and research via the NASA-KSC/Naval Research Laboratory Interagency Agreement on Advanced Corrosion Technology.
The Beach Corrosion Test Site has provided valuable information on the long-term performance of many materials, including many nickel-containing ones for over 30 years. Much of this work has been presented at international conferences and published in technical journals, making KSC a major source of worldwide corrosion expertise.
Photo: NASA.
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Website: corrosion.ksc.nasa.gov/ |
