Anisotropy of localized corrosion in 7050–T7451 Al alloy thick plate

Abstract

The corrosion anisotropy of 7050–T7451 Al alloy thick plate in NaCl solution was investigated by immersion tests, slow strain rate testing (SSRT) technique, potentiodynamic and anode polarization measurements, optical microscropy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations. The results show that the thick plate exhibits severe corrosion anisotropy due to the microstructure anisotropy. The observations of immersion surfaces together with the analysis of polarization curves reveal that the differences of the corrosion morphologies on various sections in this material are mainly related to the area fraction of the remnant second phase, and higher area fraction displays worst corrosion resistance. The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility of different directions relative to the rolling direction is assessed by SSRT technique, ranked in the order: S direction >L direction >T direction. The result show that the smaller the grain aspect ratio, the better the corrosion resistance to SCC.