The primary focus is to create a science-based understanding of corrosion through damage evolution mechanisms, develop corrosion-informed materials concepts, and evolve surface protection and modification sciences. The growing capacity and capability of computations and data repositories, corrosion modelling and simulations, multiscale, multi-science analysis and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) has set the stage for automated decision-making processes to accelerate materials discovery and predict material life under various environmental conditions.
Research leading to development of corrosion-resistant alloys and coatings, corrosion-control and prevention technologies, sensors and electrochemical characterization methodologies, and processes to mitigate corrosion and its effects when immersed in seawater, sea-influenced atmospheric conditions, and other marine environments that are experienced by Naval and/or Marine Corps assets.
Research Concentration Areas
- Corrosion-resistant materials including understanding what material-related factors degrade resistance in various Naval environments.
- Fundamental understanding of corrosion mechanisms and processes and how these mechanisms may change when environmental conditions are altered.
- Develop AI-based data analytics to support the assessment of corrosion phenomena and making informed materials choices for design and maintenance.
- Validate multi-scale corrosion phenomena models to predict the initiation and propagation of corrosion behavior in various Naval situations that enable improved corrosion-informed materials selection and design
- Evolve atomistic concepts for understanding surface-modification technologies
- Create and develop multifunctional, environmentally benign, advanced marine coatings for U.S. Navy/U.S. Marine Corps.
- Analytical techniques and processes that can monitor and measure corrosion remotely.
- Develop concepts to predict and formulate coatings resistant to cathodic protection.
Research Challenges and Opportunities
- Establish a foundational understanding of the interactions involving composition, microstructure, electrochemical and mechanical behavior of multiple principal element alloys (MPEAs), ceramic, composites, non-metallic materials, various traditional alloys, both governing passivity of these materials and the breakdown of passivity by various pathways.
- Explore innovative coating systems with unique functionalities that are capable of resisting environmental stresses that lead to greater service life. Such stresses can include resistance to seawater or chemical permeation, resistance to cathodic debondment from cathodic protection.
- Explore the process-microstructure/ property linkages leading to a fundamental understanding of corrosion mechanism in additive manufactured (AM) alloys. This should include the effects of different AM processes on materials performance and the spatial effects of AM-component size on corrosion performance.
- Explore the relation of processing to microstructure, and microstructure and compositional evolution, the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of compositionally complex crystalline phases, grain and phase boundaries, and surfaces, as they relate to corrosion properties of compositionally complex alloys (CCAs).
- Modify the chemistry of feed stock materials to enhance AM processing and corrosion resistance of additive-manufactured alloys.
- Develop corrosion-resistant coatings that will also increase the overall mechanical strength of a given component.
- Create and develop the characterization tools for various materials in corrosive environments.
- Evolve maintenance criteria to best monitor material behavior in various service environments.
- Study the roles of compositional and structural complexities during corrosion activity, passivation, breakdown of passivity, and repassivation, the development and evolution of cracks of traditional alloys and materials.
- Explore the combined effects of compositional complexity, temperature, stress, and corrosion on crack propagation in MPEAs.
How to Submit
For detailed application and submission information for this research topic, please refer to our broad agency announcement (BAA) No. N0001425SB001.
Contracts: All white papers and full proposals for contracts must be submitted through FedConnect; instructions are included in the BAA.
Grants: All white papers for grants must be submitted through FedConnect, and full proposals for grants must be submitted through grants.gov; instructions are included in the BAA.