An Integrated Architecture for Corrosion Monitoring and Testing, Data mining, Modeling and Diagnostics/Prognostics

It has been established that corrosion is one of the most important factors causing deterioration and decreased performance and reliability in critical aerospace and industrial systems. Corrosion monitoring, detection, and quantification are recognized as key enabling technologies to reduce the impact of corrosion on the integrity of aircraft and industrial assets. Accurate and reliable detection of corrosion initiation and propagation, with specified false alarm rates, requires novel tools and methods, including verifiable simulation and modeling methods. This paper reports an experimental investigation of the detection and quantification of pitting corrosion on aluminum alloy panels using 3D surface metrology methods and image processing techniques. Panel surfaces were evaluated by laser microscopy and stylus-based profilometry to characterize global and local surface features. Promising imaging and texture features were extracted and compared between coated and uncoated aluminum panels at different exposure times under accelerated corrosion conditions. Image processing, information processing, and data mining techniques were utilized to evaluate the presence and extent of pitting corrosion. A new modeling framework for corrosion stages is introduced that emphasizes the representation of pitting corrosion and ultimately the crack formation process. Detection and prediction of the evolution of corrosion stages relies on data, a particle filtering method, and the corrosion propagation model. Results from these experimental studies demonstrate the efficacy of this proposed methodology.