Quickcat: The Design and Implementation of a Corrosion Analysis Automation Tool

As the majority of commercial and military aircrafts age, the need for ensuring the safety of these aircraft is critical. Comprehensive corrosion management, however, is not a plausible option due to the lack of a good understanding about corrosion initiation and growth patterns To address this problem, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has contracted the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) department to develop corrosion initiation and growth prediction models. In 2006, a growth prediction model was developed by Major Brian Ralston, yet it was run on a limited number of samples because of the model´s time and resource demands. This report presents a discussion of the development and construction of an automation tool for the corrosion growth prediction analysis following a systems methodology approach. The tool has semi-automated Ralston´s process so that both user interaction and total analysis times were reduced. The usability, speed, and accuracy results demonstrate the success of the automation tool with regard to the project objectives. By successfully reducing the process time, the tool allows for researchers to analyze samples more quickly so that greater knowledge about the corrosion growth phenomenon is acquired.