Evaluation Of Corrosion-Resistant Alloys for Use in Acidic and Marine Launch Environments at NASA Kennedy Space Center: 20-Year Study

After the completion of an initial three-year study to qualify corrosion-resistant stainless steel tubing for use in NASA Kennedy Space Center’s acidic and marine launch environment, test specimens remained exposed at the KSC Beachside Atmospheric Corrosion Test Site for long-term exposure. NASA KSC’s lifetime requirement for most ground support equipment is twenty years. After twenty-one years of marine exposure, NASA KSC took the unique opportunity to reevaluate the tubing after long-term exposure to better understand the corrosion resistance of these alloys as they reached their expected lifetime requirement. Metallurgical and corrosion analysis was performed on the CRES tubing components and the alloys were rated on performance. A summary of CRES alloy tubing corrosion-related performance after 20 years of exposure in a marine launch environment is presented in this work.