The Effect of Corrosion Inhibitors on Environmental Fatigue Crack Growth in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu

Abstract

Corrosion fatigue is an area of concern for the United States Air Force (USAF) and other Department of Defense (DoD) organizations. Often DoD corrosion prevention systems include chromate containing coatings, typically in the form of chromate conversion coatings and polymer primers. Chromate has been used successfully for many years within the DoD to prevent corrosion damage. However the environmental and personnel risks associated with chromate coatings have caused the USAF to pursue non-chromate containing corrosion prevention coatings [1]. To fully quantify chromate replacement coatings, an understanding of the effects that chromate has on corrosion fatigue crack growth rates must be fully characterized. Some researchers have shown that high levels of chromate added to 0.6 M NaCl full immersion corrosion fatigue tests on 7xxx series aluminum alloys slow the fatigue crack growth rate substantially [2,3]. The limitation of that research was that the amount of chromate present in the test solution environment was not connected to expected leach rates of chromate from polymeric coatings and a high solubility salt was used. The majority of DoD assets are protected from corrosion by polymer coatings loaded with corrosion inhibitors. For these coatings to slow fatigue crack propagation the corrosion inhibitors must become mobile as a consequence of hydration of the polymer coating matrix. Based on this mechanism of corrosion inhibitor release, the examination of atmospheric corrosion fatigue becomes important to help understand how inhibitors work in real world situations with hydrated salt layers rather than only fully immersed solutions.