Table Of ContentResearch Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN
CORROSION SCIENCE
AND ENGINEERING
Committee on Research Opportunities in
Corrosion Science and Engineering
National Materials Advisory Board
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
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Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
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This study was supported by Contract No. FA8501-06-D-0001 between the National Academy of Sci-
ences and the Department of Defense and by awards 0840104 from the National Science Foundation
and DE-FG02-08ER46534 from the Department of Energy. Any opinions, fndings, conclusions, or
recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily refect
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Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH OPPORTuNITIES IN
CORROSION SCIENCE AND ENgINEERINg
DAVID J. DUQUETTE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Co-Chair
ROBERT E. SCHAFRIK, GE Aviation, Co-Chair
AZIZ I. ASPHAHANI, Carus Corporation (retired)
GORDON P. BIERWAGEN, North Dakota State University
DARRYL P. BUTT, Boise State University
GERALD S. FRANKEL, Ohio State University
ROGER C. NEWMAN, University of Toronto
SHARI N. ROSENBLOOM, Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Inc.
LYLE H. SCHWARTZ (NAE), University of Maryland
JOHN R. SCULLY, University of Virginia
PETER F. TORTORELLI, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
DAVID TREJO, Oregon State University
DARREL F. UNTEREKER, Medtronic, Inc.
MIRNA URQUIDI-MACDONALD, Pennsylvania State University
Staff
ERIK B. SVEDBERG, Study Director
EMILY ANN MEYER, Study Co-director (January 2009 to January 2010)
TERI THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator (until December 2009)
LAURA TOTH, Program Assistant
RICKY D. WASHINGTON, Executive Assistant
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
NATIONAL MATERIALS ADVISORY BOARD
ROBERT H. LATIFF, R. Latiff Associates, Chair
LYLE H. SCHWARTZ, University of Maryland, Vice Chair
PETER R. BRIDENBAUGH, Alcoa, Inc. (retired)
L. CATHERINE BRINSON, Northwestern University
VALERIE BROWNING, ValTech Solutions, LLC
JOHN W. CAHN, University of Washington
YET MING CHIANG, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
GEORGE T. GRAY III, Los Alamos National Laboratory
SOSSINA M. HAILE, California Institute of Technology
CAROL A. HANDWERKER, Purdue University
ELIZABETH HOLM, Sandia National Laboratories
DAVID W. JOHNSON, JR., Stevens Institute of Technology
TOM KING, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
KENNETH H. SANDHAGE, Georgia Institute of Technology
ROBERT E. SCHAFRIK, GE Aviation
STEVEN WAX, Strategic Analysis, Inc.
Staff
DENNIS I. CHAMOT, Acting Director
ERIK SVEDBERG, Senior Program Offcer
HEATHER LOZOWSKI, Financial Associate
LAURA TOTH, Program Assistant
RICKY D. WASHINGTON, Executive Assistant
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Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
Preface
Corrosion science and engineering is a complex and broad subject that is not
well defned and is still evolving as the subject itself expands beyond the traditional
one, “the destructive oxidation of metals,” to the subject of this report, “environ-
mentally induced degradation of a material that involves a chemical reaction.”
The newer subject matter encompasses a wide spectrum of environments and all
classes of materials, not just metals, and it intentionally excludes degradation due
to nonchemical processes such as creep, fatigue, and tribology.
Some technologists perceive the corrosion research feld as moribund, but
others, including the members of the National Research Council’s Committee on
Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering, see the feld quite
differently—as exciting, poised to make huge leaps. This optimism is based on
many converging forces, including the better understanding of nanometer-level
chemical processes, instrumentation not previously available that enables the inves-
tigation of various phenomena, advances in heuristic- and physics-based materials
modeling and simulation, and—especially important—societal expectations that
the quality of life will continue to improve in all dimensions.
The degree to which the committee successfully addressed its ambitious
charge—to posit grand challenges for corrosion science and engineering and to
suggest a national strategy to meet them—will be judged by the readers of this
report. The committee hopes that this report will catalyze action to revitalize the
corrosion science and engineering feld.
Developing a national strategy for any technical feld is a highly ambitious goal,
as is prioritizing the work that must be done to realize that strategy across all the
ii
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Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
P r e f a c e
iii
federal agencies. During its deliberations, the committee realized that thrusts in
corrosion science and engineering research must be linked to engineering applica-
tions in order to focus research and development efforts. What the committee was
able to do was to develop a framework for a national strategy by identifying four
corrosion grand challenges that serve as an approach to organizing new basic and
applied corrosion research. Because most of the engineering applications in aggres-
sive environments historically used metals, the committee was able to identify more
corrosion research opportunities related to metals than to nonmetals. To the extent
that it could do so, and based on the experience of its members and the information
provided to it, the committee also identifed corrosion research opportunities for
other materials systems. It expects that an appropriate mechanistic understanding
of environmental degradation of nonmetals will lead to proactive approaches to
avoiding corrosion or mitigating its effects, basing its ideas on the long experience
with corrosion in metallic systems. However, although a few specifc such activi-
ties are cited in this report, it will be the work of another body to identify research
needs and opportunities related to corrosion in nonmetallic systems.
Constituted in the fall of 2008, the committee was given the following the
tasks:
• Identify opportunities and advance scientifc and engineering understand-
ing of the mechanisms involved in corrosion processes, environmental materials
degradation, and their mitigation.
• Identify and prioritize a set of research grand challenges that would fll the
gaps in emerging scientifc and engineering issues.
• Recommend a national strategy for fundamental corrosion research to gain
a critical understanding of (1) degradation of materials by the environment and
(2) technologies for mitigating this degradation. The strategy should recommend
how best to disseminate the outcomes of corrosion research and incorporate them
into corrosion mitigation.
The committee, which was composed of experts in the feld as well as generalists
and experts in complementary disciplines, explored accomplishments in corrosion
research and its effects and assessed needs and opportunities that could be addressed
by future research. The full committee met four times between December 2008 and
September 2009: on December 18-19, 2008, at the National Academies’ Keck Center
in Washington, D.C.; April 1-2, 2009, at the National Academies’ Beckman Center in
Irvine, California; June 15-17, 2009, at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Wash-
ington, D.C.; and September 1-2, 2009, at the J. Erik Jonsson Center in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts. The committee also held town hall sessions at the annual meetings
of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers and the Minerals, Metals, and
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Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering
P r e f a c e
ix
Materials Society to raise the technical community’s awareness of this study, and it
prepared a questionnaire to solicit input from the corrosion community.
This report complements the recent National Research Council report Assess-
ment of Corrosion Education (The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.,
2009). Five of the present committee’s 14 members either served on the committee
that wrote the 2009 report or participated as peer reviewers of that report.
The main body of the present report comprises fve chapters. Chapter 1,
“Corrosion—Its Infuence and Control,” sets the stage for the remaining four chap-
ters of the report. It defnes “corrosion,” describes its societal impact, and discusses
some of the successes of corrosion R&D. Chapter 2, “Grand Challenges for Corro-
sion Research,” describes the process the committee used to develop the framework
of grand challenges, lists the challenges, and then prioritizes them. Chapter 3,
“Research Opportunities,” presents examples of basic research (the foundation
of addressing all the grand challenges) and applied research that can signifcantly
advance understanding of corrosion and mitigation of its effects, and also describes
examples of instrumentation and techniques pertinent to progress in characteriz-
ing corrosion processes. Chapter 4, “Dissemination of the Outcomes of Corrosion
Research,” addresses technology transfer. The last chapter, “A National Strategy for
Corrosion Research,” summarizes the key fndings and recommendations of the
report. The six appendixes contain the statement of task (A); results of the com-
mittee’s questionnaire on corrosion mitigation (B); a discussion on the modeling
of corrosion (C); defnitions of the acronyms used in the report (D); a summary
of current government programs relating to corrosion (E); and biographies of the
committee members (F).
David J. Duquette and Robert E. Schafrik, Co-Chairs
Committee on Research Opportunities in Corrosion
Science and Engineering
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
