Mexico.
Researchers from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) and the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA), determined through a study that volcanic ash generates corrosion in car paint.
The specialists performed variable analysis, where they observed the wear generated by ash in new car paints. The idea of the scientists Marco Antonio Cruz Gómez, Edgar Iram Villagrán Arroyo, Benjamín Flores Chico, from the BUAP and Raúl Javier Gutiérrez Estupiñán, from the UIA, was born because in Puebla there is an automotive plant and there is also the Popocatépetl volcano.
In an interview with the Information Agency of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), Cruz Gómez said that for the study they cut plates of 50 by 50 millimeters from a painted chest, which then impacted with plume-type volcanic ash from different angles.
He explained that with the use of high-speed cameras they obtained the traces of wear, also through thermal imaging cameras they managed to achieve temperature changes during the impact and post-impact of the ash.
Subsequently, with a scanning electron microscope they analyzed the size, depth and diameter of the damage produced in each of the layers of automotive paint, which generates an early aging of the body.
The speed that was handled for the impacts was 100 kilometers per hour, which is the speed of fall. It was also detected that there is a small layer of ash that remains electrostatically attached to the surface, and although it generates damage, in the second fall there is a damping by the layer that is adhered, "he said.
Also, in another line of research, scientists observed that volcanic ash wears down the turbines of airplanes, as particles that reach up to one thousand 200 degrees Celsius, deform and bite the plastic surface.
The expert stressed that through these studies they seek to characterize the damage generated by volcanic ash in cases not worked.
Source: www.excelsior.com.mx
