NACE International’s third annual University Student Design and Applied Solutions Competition (USDASC) was held for the first time at CORROSION 2018, the world’s largest annual corrosion conference. Sponsored by BP (London, United Kingdom) and the NACE Foundation, the contest is the only student competition focused on designing technology for corrosion control.
Held in April 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, at the conference’s Exhibition Hall, the two-day contest involved university students and military academy cadets from institutions including George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia, USA), Louisiana State University (LSU) (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA), Pennsylvania State University (State College, Pennsylvania, USA), Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas, USA), The University of Akron (Akron, Ohio, USA), the Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA), the U.S. Military Academy (West Point, New York, USA), and the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Maryland, USA).
Protective coatings are the most widely used method of corrosion control and account for ~90% of all expenditures for preventing and controlling corrosion. When a coating system is properly inspected and monitored, it can increase the usable life of a material like steel or concrete while reducing replacement and maintenance costs. As such, a large portion of the contest involved designing a solution to detect coating damages.
All branches of the military and nearly every major industry can experience coating failures on structures such as weapons systems, vehicles, ships, aircraft, facilities, bridges, and pipelines, especially in areas that are difficult to access. Inspection for corrosion, or precorrosion conditions such as coatings wear or degradation, is often handled via a visual inspection. Some examples of these occluded spaces include box girders, under pipelines, and small spaces such as fuel tanks and aircraft fuselages.
Further exacerbating the issue, these areas are prone to collecting moisture, which can accelerate corrosion. All protective coatings systems must be monitored and inspected regularly, and when necessary, remediation efforts must occur to prolong the life of the coating and protect the substrate.
As such, the challenge for the 2018 USDASC teams was to develop a system for corrosion inspection in difficult-to-access areas that could inspect, identify, and quantify any corrosion-related defects found inside the fixed structure; autonomously move through the structure without human touch; and communicate any information discovered to a team operator. The competition featured eight prototype robots to perform these tasks.
The system had to also succinctly report within 1 in2 (645 mm2) the location of water; the presence of surface corrosion; location, area, and depth of corrosion penetration; and the extent and type of coating degradation. Teams also had to work within a fixed budget. Each team had to succinctly report findings in an easy-to-read format for judges and operators.
The competition was judged by four corrosion industry experts with extensive experience and expertise in corrosion and coatings technology. The judging team was comprised of NACE International members Harvey Hack, FNACE, Northrop Grumman Fellow at Northrop Grumman Corp. (Falls Church, Virginia, USA); Sean Brossia, corporate materials engineer at INVISTA (Wichita, Kansas, USA); Ron Latanision, FNACE, emeritus professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA); and Neil Thompson, FNACE, senior vice president of the pipeline services department at DNV-GL (Oslo, Norway) for its North American oil and gas business.
Each team built an autonomous system for corrosion inspection to meet the various specific challenge parameters and specifications. On Tuesday, teams took the stage to give oral presentations and introduce their prototypes for autonomous inspection. On Wednesday, teams demonstrated their robot’s ability to negotiate obstacles and inspect for corrosion in a closed steel box. In the end, first place went to the U.S. Naval Academy team, second place to the LSU squad, and third place to the U.S. Military Academy.
For 2019, the competition is slated to return to Houston, Texas, USA, where it will take place from April 16-17.
Source: USDASC, www.usdasc.com.