MATERIALS ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES CORP. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF181-010

Description

The objective of the AF181-010 solicitation is to design and qualify a tensile test method to identify unacceptable levels of residual hydrogen in electroplated high tensile strength steels in less than 30 hours.The test method should be equivalent or superior to the 200-hour constant-load tensile test in the current ASTM F519 standard.METSS will address this objective by designing a slow-strain-rate tensile test that is optimized for hydrogen embrittlement.The approach is based on similar standards in the ASTM repertoire and a body of international research on slow-strain-rate testing for hydrogen embrittlement.During the Phase I program, METSS will demonstrate a successful proof-of-concept for a rapid and reliable hydrogen embrittlement test, as well as a preliminary business case analysis (BCA) with return on investment (ROI) to support transition to the new, rapid test method.This concept and the associated BCA/ROI will be refined under the Phase II program, resulting in a test method and supporting research that can be formally standardized through an ASTM committee or similar organization, or formally adopted as a MIL-standard.