The Contribution of Hydrogen to the Loss of Mechanical Properties of a 7046 Aluminium Alloy Pre-Exposed in a Chloride Media

Abstract

Automotive industry is increasingly affected by standards requiring a major cut of polluting emissions. Rolled sheets of Cu-free 7000-series alloys offer a very attractive compromise between mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, forming and weight. With the continuing need for further down-gauging and light-weighting in transportation sector, as well as other applications, these alloys are being considered for large volume use. Nevertheless, their susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement (HE) and to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a limiting factor. The present work concerns HE susceptibility of a 7046-T4 aluminium alloy exposed to a 0.6M NaCl solution. First results showed a strong decrease of the ultimate elongation for tensile samples after exposure to the chloride solution Surface observations revealed that the alloy was mildly affected by corrosion in this environment: pits initiated rapidly around intermetallic particles but only few pits propagated after several days of exposure. Cross-section of pre-corroded samples showed no intergranular corrosion and the maximal depth for the corrosion defects was about 100 nm which was not enough to lead to a noticeable loss of mechanical properties. Therefore, it was assumed that the decrease of the mechanical properties was related to the penetration of hydrogen inside the materials and the results gave proofs that hydrogen could enter and embrittle the 7046 aluminium alloy even without an applied stress during its exposure to the corrosive solution. Global hydrogen content measurements by melting method confirmed this assertion. Furthermore, comparison of the fracture surface of a healthy specimen and that of a sample pre-exposed to the NaCl solution showed that the ductile fracture mode observed for a healthy specimen was partially replaced by cleavage and brittle intergranular rupture when the sample was pre-corroded. Both fracture modes could be attributed to different hydrogen contents and different trapping sites in the microstructure. The hydrogen localized in the grain boundaries was believed to lead to intergranular decohesion, while the reticular and trapped hydrogen presumably induced cleavage rupture by exacerbating the localization of the plasticity. In addition, tensile tests were performed on samples pre-hydrogenated in a pH 2 sulfuric acid solution with a cathodic potential applied. The aim was to precisely control the hydrogen amount introduced in the samples. The depth and the nature of the fracture mode were then analyzed and related to the hydrogen amount. In parallel, pre-hydrogenated coupons were analyzed by SIMS in order to measure the maximal depth affected by hydrogen and to localize the trapping sites in the microstructure. The coupling of these two methods allowed to conclude about the role of the hydrogen generated by corrosion and to propose a mechanism to explain the embrittlement.