Military structures made from high strength metal alloys (aluminum, steel, titanium), exhibit a strong propensity to pitting and stress corrosion cracking. Although pits can initiate from both physical and chemical heterogeneities on the surface, the role of inclusions and second-phase particles (constituent particles) in inducing pitting/stress corrosion cracking in aluminum metal alloys is more common. Corrosion-fatigue in metal alloys generally involves the formation of pits, pit growth, nucleation of cracks from pits, and the eventual crack propagation to failure. Quantitative analysis through corrosion models, computational simulations, and imaging data that correlates to pitting and cracking is being investigated.
For more details, please see the poster at Corrosion Research at UGA