New Tools, Resources, Training Modules at U.S. Corrosion Defense Portal

Experts involved in the military planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Washington, DC, USA) facilities and infrastructure are invited to access new knowledge pages, training, and tools within the U.S. Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG).

The WBDG is a comprehensive web-based portal housing corrosion prevention and control insights, codes, criteria, guidance, and best practices, according to the DoD.

With support from the DoD’s Corrosion Policy and Oversight Office, the WBDG recently published new informational content, three new training modules, and a new corrosivity estimation tool to help facilities experts stay current on best practices in corrosion prevention and mitigation. 

A program of the National Institute of Building Sciences, the WBDG’s reference portal provides government and industry experts with easy access to facilities-related guidance, criteria, training, and technology. 

The newest WBDG content and training are customized for facilities planners, designers, constructors, and maintainers, while supplementing the site’s other corrosion-related knowledge, codes, guidelines, criteria, best practices, and training material. 

J. Clay Dean and Stephen Geusic, analysts in the Corrosion Policy and Oversight Office, are overseeing the new content production. 

The WBDG’s corrosion prevention and control (CPC) source “knowledge” pages address CPC issues and challenges related to facilities planning, sustainment, restoration and modernization, competencies, acquisition issues, cost of corrosion, and environmental severity. 

Specifically, these documents address cathodic protection (CP), corrosion science, doors, fencing, paint and coatings, pavements, petroleum oil lubricants storage distribution systems, utilities and buried structures, and waterfront and coastal structures. 

According to Dean, the “knowledge pages” are designed to provide a focus on critical high-cost facilities areas. They provide short oversight and assistance for the designer and engineer who may need help on DoD projects and issues. “For those who design, construct, and sustain DoD facilities, locating the proper CPC guidance can be very challenging,” Dean says.  

Over the long term, the WBDG’s CPC source section will be enhanced by eight new training modules, which will supplement five 15-30-minute training vignettes that are currently available.

The DoD Corrosion Office has already posted three of the eight modules, including Cathodic Protection Basics, Corrosion Prevention and Control of Utilities and Buried Structures, and Corrosion Prevention of Waterfront and Coastal Structures. 

“Our enhanced, longer DoD-sponsored courses have voice-over narration, and those who complete these courses will qualify for one Professional Development Hour [PDH],” Geusic says.

The hour-long Cathodic Protection Basics course provides an overview of CP across the facilities life cycle. The course is aimed at facilities professionals that plan, design, construct, and maintain DoD facilities, but it is suitable for anyone that is interested in, or responsible for, the corrosion prevention of utilities, systems, and structures that use CP.  Specific Cathodic Protection Basics course learning objectives are outlined at http://www.wbdg.org/continuing-education/dod-courses/dod01.

Meanwhile, the Corrosion Prevention and Control of Utilities and Buried Structures module looks at corrosion as one of the primary factors affecting the longevity and reliability of these systems and structures.  The course covers the corrosion mechanisms associated with utilities and buried structures and methods for corrosion prevention and control.  

Finally, the Corrosion Prevention of Waterfront and Coastal Structures module introduces students to typical waterfront structures critical to the security and readiness of the DoD and the aggressive corrosive environment in which these structures exist. The course covers corrosion and corrosion prevention associated with waterfront and coastal facilities and structures, such as piers and wharves, and the components that comprise the structures. These components include bulkheads, pilings, structure framing, decks, utility trenches, dolphins, and fender systems. 

New Corrosivity Estimation Tool 
                        

The WBDG also recently published a new corrosion toolbox containing several instruments for evaluating environmental severity and compiling environmental data. These tools comprise the ISO Corrosivity Category Estimation Tool (ICCET). 

The ICCET tool was developed as part of the office’s Environmental Severity and Corrosivity study. It can be used to estimate ISO corrosivity categories; calculate the Wood Decay Hazard Index; overlay various corrosion data and severity indices using interactive maps; view animated maps of monthly corrosivity; and obtain air pollution and weather data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Washington, DC, USA) databases. 

Facilities professionals can access the complete ICCET toolbox on the WBDG portal or at the CorrDefense web site.