LUNA INNOVATIONS INCORPORATED — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Carbon steel tanks and enclosures within Navy submarines and ships are protected by a comb

Description

Carbon steel tanks and enclosures within Navy submarines and ships are protected by a combination of coatings and cathodic protection systems. Tanks and enclosures were named as the top corrosion expense on Navy vessels, accounting for $204 million annually in direct costs. To address this issue, Luna proposes to develop a reliable, long service life and low cost coating health monitoring system that can be easily installed, accessed outside the tank and that senses and stores cumulative measurements of coating degradation. The health monitoring system will provide shipboard personnel and maintainers with a direct pass/fail measurement of coating condition and estimated remaining service life. The monitoring system will be based on Luna"s line of ultralow power sensor systems used for structural health monitoring and equipment diagnostics. A network of sensor nodes for monitoring environmental conditions and electrochemical properties of the coating, substrate and cathodic protection system will provide for large area monitoring, and an artificial intelligence algorithm will be established to output pass/fail coating condition, location and extent of coating degradation and quantify level of cathodic protection.