Introducing * THE GREAT CANADIAN CORROSION EXPERIMENT *
I am pleased to present the newest installment on Connielingus..... The Great Canadian Corrosion Experiment!!!!
A little while back I received a comment on *Airplane Corrosion Of The Week* from Herge wondering just how long it would take for a piece of aircraft aluminum to corrode.
I gave some answer stating that corrosion only happens when conditions are right, there is an "accelerant" i.e. acidic substances like cola or urine, and the metal is no longer being protected by a corrosion resistant coating like Cladding, Alodine or paint. Shortly after that I got the bright idea that I would try and recreate a corrosion situation in a sort of "controlled experiment"..... And here we are today!
As you can see by this photo I have built a board with 9 pieces of a commonly used piece of 2024-T3 (copper additive for strength) Aluminum.- The first row is 3 pieces of clad aluminum.... Cladding is a simple corrosion resistant technique using a thin layer of pure aluminum (because with no additive like copper or zinc, aluminum will actually take forever to corrode -i.e. pop cans are pure aluminum)
- The second row is 3 pieces with the clad scratched off, the most likely to corrode as the all protective coatings have been removed.....
- The third row has the aluminum with a hole drilled thru and a steel screw without a protective aluminum washer between it and the metal. This is to observe the effects of the "accelerant substances" as well as the effects of dissimilar metals called Galvanic Corrosion
- As you can see in the above photo I have introduced the 3 major corrosion causes that are commonly spilled in passenger aircraft:
- Cola
- Coffee
- Urine
The objective is to see how long it will take for each of these acidic substances will take to break down the aluminum pieces, and which one will actually corrode first....
I will be updating every week until we see any sign of metal decomposition!!!!!
Anyone care to take an educated guess which will show signs of corrosion first????
posted by Connie @ 11:30 AM
23 Comments:
wow, now thats blog dedication! Go you!
well, doesn't it depend on what the urine sample provider drank? coffee or coke?
That is sorta a good point aas.
Well, its my morning urine (the most potent kind!) and I had a beer and a glass of water after I got home from work last night before i urinated it out this morning....
It's gotta be the cola!
I swear it's the year's of Pepsi Max abuse that's responsible for Tina's problematic guts.
Cola all the way.
Hey Connie - The record covers are just a little thing to show those that care what I'm into at the mo.
As for The Go! Team - they are amazing.
They have the best happy music of any band around. I've already seen them a couple of times and had a good old chin wag to the guy that pulled it all together (much to the annoyance of a mate of mine who auditioned for the band a couple of years ago but didn't get in). I even won a prize at a small Christmas gig they did in Brighton - because I correctly identified one of their songs.
Love them, love them
Radio Dept are a lot like My Bloody Valentine - so very cool. I think they 're Swedish or something. They sound ace. Thanks for noticing the covers btw.
Cola cola cola.
This is so cool. Between you and Tina you come up with the best stuff.
Sooooo... it's your morning pee. What do you and Jenn get up to before your pee? Might column 3 be affected by Jenn's breakfast?
Did you pee into a cup, or take this from the loo after it had been diluted with the standing water (which might or might not have had Pepsi Max added to it, or Clorox Bleach tablets, or heaven knows what all people dump in their loo these days besides bodily excretia)?
Is the red river flowing?
I *am* a bioengineer, after all.
You *did* dare us to take an _educated_ guess. :)
Oops, just thought of this. If you're updating weekly, are you also refreshing each substance after evaporation? If so, I suppose all the urine questions are irrelevant since it'll be an "average"...
... unless you decided to be really precise and saved up all your morning pee from that morning in a jug. A jug that hadn't held coffee or cola.
In that case, the questions would stand.
I want to see a female urine versus male urine test.
Oh my! I feel all science-y, reading this post!
To be different I'll go with urine being the most corrosive.
Looking forward to the updates, Connie!
well aas, It is urine that i peed into a cup... I'm very good at this as I recieve drug tests at my work. There was nothing to dilute it and i used a sterile syringe to drop it out. I will be adding new coffee, cola and urine as they evaporate and I decided on using new liquids each time, and the urine just being of my own... so yes a sort of average.
And no... column 3 is had nothing to do with Jenn's breakfast... this time.... ;)
ok connie you're officially cool (not that you care about my book)! except for the mgd. but then, every heroine has a weak spot. :D
Top notch. And what's the best that Sniffy Experimentals can come up with? Dissolving watch dirt with fabric detergent and reconstituting a dehydrated contact lens.
I feel very inadequate in your presence, Connie. Excellent work and worthy of a PhD in anybody's book (should you want one of course).
Oh Tina, you musn't say that! I absolutly loved the contact lens one.... you were the original experimenter and I owe you the praise my darling! Please don't ever stop your sniffy experiments!!!! They actually are my favorite "thing" you do ;)
I'll have to try to think of some new ones then. Ah-hah! I may have the very thing!..... I must try to remember.
i reckon the steel screw w/ aluminium goes first with...ummm.....ahh, lets say your urine. and where is this panel going to be kept? inside? outside, exposed to the weather?
Yeah, that's true, does your hangar represent a true atmospheric control? Good point BG. Perhaps you need to set up a replicate that's flown around in one of the planes? I'm sure they'd let you for the sake of science and aviation safety.
Of course after this experiment you realise that no will fly on a plane again, or at the very least will have bladder infections for fear of having a piss on the plane.
Yeah, not exactly building huge amounts of confidence, here.
One question: who spills urine on a plane?
ok... This is in fact a problem, as to where I am going to keep it... its far too warm here and the substances are drying up far too quickly. I am moving it to my basement, a dark dank place similar to the under floor of an aircraft.
As far as being afraid of flying you might be surprised as to how long this experiment might take to corrode.
Everyone must remember that a big part of aircraft maintenance is the corrosion control program where we spend hours coating everything in a wax-like substance called Dinatrol that makes the structure completly waterproof.
In fact I have just spent the last 3 days inspecting the wing of a Boeing 727 and found no corrosion at all. I tend to sometimes exagerate the "corrosion horrors" but in reality it is getting caught and fixed before any serious problems arise with the aircraft... The most common places we find it is under the lavatories and galleys where there are spills, and where urine leaks from the toilet and/or "missing the target" so to speak... and only then the corrosion arises because all protective coatings on the structure have been worn away (which sometimes can be up to 4 different layers)
Honestly there is no need to fear... That is my job... I keep these planes servicable and safe everyday, crawling around the belly looking for telltale signs of piss-crystals and blue toilet water.
You don't fancy getting a job with Cross Air to make sure their planes are Ok for when I have to get on one in September, do you?
Actually I would love to work in England at an airline.... Problem is I would have to take a big cut in salary and standard of living that I'm used to here.... I've looked into it and the cost of living in the UK is outrageous in the bigger cities (where airports generally are)
Ha! Tell us about it! :(
Anyway, I put no dollars on urine under a screw to corrode fastest. I have no thinking behind this, it's a blind gamble.
Now, I'll just go and sell one of the kids for a loaf of bread... ;)
Don't forget to coppy this one and the progress reports over to corrosion of the week. I direct possible girlophilephobes to that one to spare them the sight of naked breasts and things.
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