On Wednesday, November 14, 2001, at 05:43 PM, Eric Murray wrote:
OTOH, LME requires the metals to be liquid or close to it. Even tin has a melting point around 500 degrees F, and it's a pretty low melting point metal. Engine mounting parts might get that hot, but not the exterior surface.
No, liquid metal embrittlement does not require that aluminum, for example, be nearly in a liquid state. The mercury amalgam that forms can even form at cryogenic temperatures, not to mention at normal ambient temperatures.
There's probably other methods of causing quick corrosion of failure besides LME... what I googled about it makes me not worry about it as something sprayed on the exterior of aircraft to cause sabotage.
Google is great, but beware of getting your basic science just from some items you find. Fontana and Greene is a good text on corrosion, and there are even some pretty good online descriptions of LME in connection with mercury on aluminum. --Tim May