Corrosion Assessment of Barge-Bridge Materials in Field Conditions

Situations often arise that might necessitate the deployment of modular infrastructure, such as for some disaster response or tactical military need. Examples include the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and the Gaza floating pier construction. The merits of implementing modular bridge designs for use in Army service environments are being investigated. Bridges can be used “dry” or “wet” and can be exposed to a range of climates and/or waters (e.g., temperate, tropical, desert, artic, fresh, brackish, salt, riverine, bay, or lake). Corrosion testing of various materials was conducted at the Naval Research Laboratory to estimate the material performance of the system. This article summarizes a more comprehensive study published elsewhere.1