Abstract
The aircraft carrier environment provides the most severe conditions to which naval aircraft materials are exposed. The combination of humidity, temperature, salt content from the water vapor, and sulfur dioxide from aircraft exhausts creates an extremely corrosive environment. Under these conditions, unprotected high-strength aluminum alloys exhibit extensive exfoliation during relatively short periods of exposure. Although various ASTM standards have been established to characterize corrosion (ranging from exfoliation to general corrosion and pitting), there is no laboratory test that compares with real-time aircraft exposure. Still, accelerated laboratory tests have been devised that well simulate the exposure of aluminum alloys in the natural environment, although there is no real correlation for aluminum-lithium alloys. Considering these factors, this paper compares the results of shipboard exposure testing with those obtained from laboratory accelerated tests.
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Tankins, E., Kozol, J. & Lee, E.W. The shipboard exposure testing of aircraft materials. JOM 47, 40–44 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03221254
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03221254