Compliance with MARPOL environmental regulations has required the design of a waste management system to reduce the volume of solid shipboard waste and treat it so that it is safe to carry aboard ship. The U.S. Navy in cooperation with industry has developed a conceptual design of a plasma arc waste destruction system (PAWDS) capable of meeting strict shipboard weight, size and operational criteria that has precluded the use of traditional commercial systems. The innovative system design has involved a thorough examination of candidate materials that should be capable of withstanding the processing of a variable waste stream that may include highly corrosive constituents. The structural components of the PAWDS should insure safety to personnel and ship by resisting degradation through high temperature corrosion, erosion, thermal cycling, and other effects.
Keywords: incinerators, high-temperatire corrosion, high temperature oxidation, carburization, sulfidation, chloridation, hydrogen interactions, hot corrosion, dewpoint corrosion, acid corrosion, galvanic corrosion, crevice corrosion, pitting corrosion, impingement, erosion-corrosion, liquid metal embrittlement, aging reactions, sensitization, creep damage, fatigue and corrosion fatigue, environmental cracking, high temperature alloys, water-cooled reactors, steam-cooled chambers.