Development of an evaluation platform to verify the safety of high-strength steel used in ammonia propulsion and transport vessels using domestic technology has entered full swing. It is expected that this will secure international competitiveness in the shipbuilding and steel industries and establish a foundation for reflecting domestic technology in future international regulatory and standard revisions.

The Korea Institute of Materials Science announced on the 5th that it has begun joint development of an "Anhydrous Ammonia Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) Integrated Evaluation Platform" for verifying the safety of high-strength steel applied to ammonia propulsion and transport vessels.

This is the first time that development of a similar evaluation platform has been pursued domestically.

SCC is a phenomenon in which cracks occur when metallic materials are exposed simultaneously to stress and a corrosive environment. For vessels handling anhydrous ammonia as fuel or cargo, ensuring steel safety is considered a critical issue.

This platform is designed to comprehensively evaluate the stress corrosion cracking behavior of high-strength steel in ammonia environments.

The Korea Institute of Materials Science will oversee the project, operating it through a joint development system with relevant organizations.

The institute explained that through the development of this platform, it will be possible to directly verify the safety of domestically-produced high-strength steel using domestic technology.

Furthermore, it is expected that domestic technology and data will be able to be reflected in discussions on regulatory and standard revisions by international organizations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), thereby establishing a foundation for this.

This research will be led by Jang Young-jun, principal research fellow at the Extreme Materials Research Division of the Korea Institute of Materials Science.