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The US Army operates in many harsh and demanding environments throughout the world, which are highly corrosive. However, there lacks a basic understanding of the severity of these environments and their impact on the Army's materiel. To better understand this impact and broaden their database of information, the Army has established test sites on the Hawaii islands. These sites represent various climatic conditions the Army operates in. In these locations panel exposure of Army and automotive systems have been made to compare performance with that documented in the continental US by the SAE ACAP and past Army programs. Recently the first set of samples exposed have completed three (3) years of exposure. A secondary set has reached its first year of exposure and a third set have completed three (3) months of exposure. This paper will present a summary of the three year results and future work to be completed.

Since 2000, an Aluminum Cosmetic Corrosion task group within the SAE Automotive Corrosion and Protection (ACAP) Committee has existed. The task group has pursued the goal of establishing a standard test method for in-laboratory cosmetic corrosion evaluations of finished aluminum auto body panels. A cooperative program uniting OEM, supplier, and consultants has been created and has been supported in part by USAMP (AMD 309) and the U.S. Department of Energy. Prior to this committee's formation, numerous laboratory corrosion test environments have been used to evaluate the performance of painted aluminum closure panels. However, correlations between these laboratory test results and in-service performance have not been established. Thus, the primary objective of this task group's project was to identify an accelerated laboratory test method that correlates well with in-service performance.

Corrosion inspection of vehicles can provide useful information in evaluating material performance, optimizing future systems and predicting maintenance needs of fielded systems. However, most data is taken on field notes or inspection forms and transcribed into computer databases for analysis. This method allows for errors in data entry and omission (e.g., not completing vital information). In support of the US Marine Corps and US Navy we have developed field portable, computer-based data collection systems. These systems allow the users to easily record corrosion information, automate the data upload procedures and allow users to instantly access and evaluate information. This paper will discuss the work we've performed in brief and provide examples of programs and desktop applications that have been developed.

The US Army operates in many harsh and demanding environments throughout the world, which are highly corrosive. However, there lacks a basic understanding of the severity of these environments and their impact on the Army's materiel. To better understand this impact and broaden their database of information, the Army has established test sites on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. These sites represent various climatic conditions the Army operates in. In select locations panel exposure of Army and automotive systems have been made to compare performance with that documented in the continental US by the SAE ACAP and past Army programs. This paper will present the details of this project and results through 1-year of exposure for this multi-year effort.

As automobile power needs increase 42-volt electrical systems are being proposed for use in consumer vehicles. One concern when using these new systems is the corrosion resistance of these components, especially in underhood environments. Corrosion is an electrochemical phenomenon and as such can be altered (increased or decreased) by the application of an external current or voltage. Although unintentional, the use of a higher voltage electrical system has the ability to increase corrosion through its normal use. This program evaluated the impact of corrosion on electrical components powered by 14 and 42-volt DC systems. Accelerated corrosion test findings suggested that 42-volt systems may be more susceptible to corrosion, but without proper environmental shielding both supply system can have unacceptable degradation.

A co-operative program initiated by the Automotive Aluminum Alliance and supported by USAMP continues to pursue the goal of establishing an in-laboratory cosmetic corrosion test for finished aluminum auto body panels that provides a good correlation with in-service performance. The program is organized as a task group within the SAE Automotive Corrosion and Protection (ACAP) Committee. Initially a large reservoir of test materials was established to provide a well-defined and consistent specimen supply for comparing test results. A series of laboratory procedures have been conducted on triplicate samples at separate labs in order to evaluate the reproducibility of the various lab tests. Exposures at OEM test tracks have also been conducted and results of the proving ground tests have been compared to the results in the laboratory tests. Outdoor tests and on-vehicle tests are also in progress. An optical imaging technique is being utilized for evaluation of the corrosion.