Development of Facility Corrosion Inspection Templates & Planning for a Central Database

Project ID: 22048
Principal Investigator: Bobbi Jo Merten
Research Topic: Condition Assessment
Funded Fiscal Years: 2022 and 2023
Keywords: None

Research Question

Research Question (RQ) 1: What coating inspection data templates are needed to be developed and adopted for the facility staff and TSC inspectors that perform corrosion condition assessments on Reclamation steel structures to make it more comparable across facilities?

There is existing guidance on what data to collect for corrosion condition assessments, and the project team and partners have a joint interest to develop this guidance into tools that improve inspection consistency across each agency. This research will focus the effort, using the existing guidance and previous reports as a starting point, to provide up to several inspection data templates. Researchers will work with facility partners to ensure the adoption can be accessible to the broad range of non-experts that conduct these inspections. The goal is for the template to improve the quality and consistency of the data across Reclamation.

RQ2: How can template data be centrally stored using Reclamation-wide data tools, such as GIS, to make it more easily found and to allow for inventory analysis?

As with RQ1, the ongoing activities to standardize and centralize different types of data will be reviewed. The research will determine if a centralized data storage is appropriate for corrosion condition assessment data so that accessible inventories can be built. If so, the team will outline a plan and approach for implementing this next step.

Need and Benefit

This proposal develops standard data collection approaches for coating inspections. The objective is to improve the data storage and processing for improved decision making and condition-based maintenance.
Power and Energy, "Develop or advance inspection and coating application and repair methods..." The penstock need statement is addressed by advancing inspection methods to improve data quality and reduce inspection time. Ken Nowak, Alison Odell, and Erin Foraker were emailed an early draft.

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Please contact research@usbr.gov about research products related to this project.


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Last Updated: 6/22/20