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Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering (ROCSE)
The National Research Council will convene a committee to (1) identify the science opportunities that have arisen from recent advances and accomplishments in the field of fundamental corrosion research and that will advance scientific understanding of the mechanisms of corrosion processes, materials degradation, and their mitigation; (2) prioritize a set of research grand-challenge questions to fill identified scientific gaps; and (3) make recommendations on a national strategy in fundamental corrosion research with the goal of gaining the critical understanding of (a) materials degradation and (b) mitigating technologies. The strategy should also include recommendations on how to maximize the dissemination of the outcomes of corrosion research to maximize their incorporation into corrosion mitigation.
As documented in the report Corrosion Costs and Preventive Strategies in the United States1 the direct costs of corrosion to the U.S. economy represent 3.2 percent of the U.S. GDP, and the total costs to society can be twice that or greater. Beyond that are the costs of human health, the national economic sustainability, and national defense readiness based on deteriorating infrastructure, equipment and machinery. Opportunities for savings through improved materials selection and corrosion control are possible in every economic sector. While improved cost-effective corrosion management procedures could significantly extend the service life of existing systems, and reduce maintenance costs and replacement requirements, the value of these preventive strategies has often not been recognized and the strategies remain unapplied. Two major barriers to realizing significant savings are a broad lack of awareness of corrosion costs and the potential savings, and a widely held misconception that nothing can be done about corrosion. An essential element to tackling the second of these barriers is a better basic understanding of materials corrosion, broadly defined as the deterioration of a material in its operating environment. In 2002 the U.S. Congress mandated the establishment of a Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.2 In addition, the Office of the Secretary of Defense has developed a corrosion strategy and, in 2005, began funding technology transition and implementation projects that were developed by all branches of the services. It is becoming increasingly obvious with each year's projects, that significant new technology is needed to meet the DoD goal of predicting and managing corrosion, in contrast to the current approach of simply finding corrosion and fixing it. While many corrosion inhibition processes have been discovered and implemented, there is often little understanding of why they work. This lack of understanding prevents the development of these processes and any research on alternatives. Accelerated corrosion tests in aggressive environments are used to assess corrosion resistance, but in many cases do not correlate to real world exposures because of a lack of fundamental understanding of the role of important parameters. Predictive capabilities cannot be developed where corrosion processes or their rates are not understood. The corrosion processes of concern occur in the air, on land, and at sea: in organic and inorganic materials, and under a host of conditions with impacts that are not understood though measurable. A basic understanding of materials and their degradation is necessary to all industries and is especially critical for the nation’s defense, transportation, nuclear, and medical industries.
In carrying out this study the committee will examine the opportunities for fundamental research in corrosion science as well as corrosion engineering with emphasis on both the degradation of materials and technologies to mitigate corrosion, the committee will:
The study will be completed in two stages with a total of four ~2-2.5 day committee meetings. The first stage will be concerned with a comprehensive data-gathering exercise that will involve the committee hearing from outside experts and the sponsor in order to gain a broader understanding of the issues related to the statement of task. The committee will possibly consider data-gathering through site visits to labs, universities, and companies. Following these data gathering activities, the committee will develop its recommendations, hold additional deliberations, and prepare the final report.
The biographies of the committee can be viewed at the NRC Current Projects System.
Meeting dates for the Committee on Research Opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering (ROCSE) are shown below. Information on the agendas is available on the NRC Current Project System.
For further information send e-mail to corrosion@nas.edu Download Presentations Community Input CICME is actively pursuing community comments and feedback. Please consider submitting your thoughts to the committee in the following way: By e-mail: Send comments directly to the committee at corrosion@nas.edu. Please bear in mind that all information submitted to the committee in writing will be made publicly available.
The National Academies study on Research opportunities in Corrosion Science and Engineering (ROCSE) will hold a town hall meeting on Tuesday, March 24 at 5:00 p.m. for input to the study in conjunction with the CORROSION 2009 Conference & Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, March 22-26, 2009.
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