FEASIBILITY OF CORROSION SENSORS FOR CONDITION BASED MAINTENANCE OF DEPLETED URANIUM PENETRATORS

摘要

Depleted Uranium (DU) is the material currently used in the 120 mm tank munitions. DU is susceptible to atmospheric corrosion, and these rounds are often uploaded in some corrosive environments around the world. After field exposures or controlled humidity testing, both moisture-induced expansion of the graphite composite sabot, and corrosion of the DU have resulted in "swelling" of the round. In some cases, this swelling can prevent the round from being chambered. This investigation examines the feasibility of corrosion sensors to monitor the condition of the DU rounds. The results show that the interdigitized foil sensors track corrosivity of a humid environment well, but are limited to mildly corrosive conditions. The bimetallic foil corroded excessively after only 2 cycles in a GM 9540P accelerated corrosion test (equivalent to less than 1 year in a tropical environment). However, the durability of the foil sensors appears to be adequate for monitoring the corrosivity of the environments typically encountered by DU. The reliability of the electronic portion of the sensor, that includes the data storage unit, is questionable at best, and would be too cumbersome for Army field applications.