Introduction to Aerospace Materials

21

Corrosion of aerospace metals

21.1 Introduction

Corrosion of metals used in aircraft structures and engines is a large and expensive problem for the aviation industry. The yearly cost to the industry is over $2.2 billion, which includes the expense of designing and manufacturing aircraft components to resist corrosion ($0.2 billion); downtime when aircraft are inspected for corrosion ($0.3 billion); and corrosion maintenance of aircraft ($1.7 billion). Despite the large sums of money spent on corrosion prevention, it remains a common cause of damage to metal components. Corrosion accounts for about 25% of all metal component failures on aircraft; only fatigue is responsible for more failures than corrosion. The risk and cost of corrosion ...