A Review of Research on Galvanic Corrosion of Aluminum Alloys

When aluminum alloys are coupled with dissimilar materials,they often act as corrosion anodes and are suscepted to accelerated corrosion.Therefore,deepening our knowledge of such corrosion phenomena,related mechanisms,and elaborating new prediction model is of great theoretical and practical significance.In this paper,such mechanisms are explained from both macroscopic and microscopic points of view by considering several aspects such as the second phase particle type,grain size,and environmental ions.More specifically,different perspectives on such a problem are elaborated,which take into account:the properties of the coupling pair materials,geometrical characteristics,environmental media characteristics,the corrosion regularity of different types of aluminum alloys,the influence of area ratio on anode corrosion current density,the interference of the solution primary ions represented by Cl-and the accompanying ions represented by Al3+.A review is also conducted of the standard test methods used in the study of aluminum alloys galvanic corrosion and of research methods such as the Wire Beam Electrodes Technology(WBE),the Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy(SKPFM)technology.Finally,three kinds of inhibition technologies are discussed,including the anodic oxidation treatment,the corrosion inhibitor treatment and the coating protection method.

Corrosion behavior of aluminum alloys in Na_2SO_4 solution using the scanning electrochemical microscopy technique

The corrosion behavior of aluminum alloys 1060 and 2A12 in a 10 mM Na2SO4＋5 mM KI solution was investigated by scanning electrochemical microscopy （SECM） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. The potential topography and corrosion morphology results show that the potential of the sample surface over the same area changes with the increase of immersion time. The corrosion area becomes large, and the potential becomes more negative. The corrosion potential of the 2A12 alloy surface is lower than that of 1060 aluminum, and 2A12 alloy becomes easily corrosive. This is the reason that preferential dissolution in the boundary region of some intermetallic particles （IMPs） occurs and different dissolution behaviors are associated with different types of IMPs because of different potentials.

Rotary bending fatigue behavior of A356 –T6 aluminum alloys by vacuum pressurizing casting

Vacuum pressurizing casting technique, providing better mould filling and inter-dendritic feeding, can reduce the porosity greatly in cast aluminum alloys, and improve the fatigue properties. The rotary bending fatigue properties of A356-T6 alloys prepared by vacuum pressurizing casting were investigated. The S-N curve and limit strength 90 MPa under fatigue life of 107 cycles were obtained. The analyses on the fatigue fractography and microstructure of specimens showed that the fatigue fracture mainly occurs at the positions with casting defects in the subsurface, especially at porosities regions, which attributed to the crack propagation during the fatigue fracture process. Using the empirical crack propagation law of Pairs-Erdogon, the quantitative relationship among the initial crack size, fatigue life and applied stress was established. The fatigue life decreases with an increase in initial crack size. Two constants in the Pairs-Erdogon equation of aluminum alloy A356-T6 were calculated using the experimental data.

Low Superheat Pouring with a Shear Field in Rheoeasting of Aluminum Alloys

A new rheocasting process, Low Superheat Pouring with a Shear Field （LSPSF）, was developed to produce semi-solid slurry for the rheo-forming process. The LSPSF process is one of controlled nucleation and limited growth techniques in which effective nucleation rate is controlled by passive mixing and localized rapid cooling near the liquidus temperature; dendrite growth is limited by a much slower cooling process. The experimental results of rheocast Al-Cu alloy 201 and secondary diecasting alloy A380 demonstrate that LSPSF process is capable of producing high-quality slurry in a matter of seconds. It is concluded that maximizing nucleation and nuclei survival directly lead to the grain refinement of the rheocasting microstructure, and high nuclei density combined with a slower cooling afterwards leads to a globular structure of primary phases.

Application of the wavelet packet and its energy spectrum to identify nugget splash during the aluminum alloys spot welding

Nugget splash during aluminum alloys spot welding has a detrimental effect on weld nugget integrity, strength and durability of the welded joints. This investigation is performed to identify nugget splash from voltage signals because these are easily accessible on-line. In the present work, we propose a novel method based on the wavelet packet transform and its energy spectrum for pattern recognition of splash signal. The result demonstrates that this novel method is more accuracy and a useful way of monitoring the spot welding quality.

Pore structure and mechanical properties of directionally solidi ed porous aluminum alloys

Porous aluminum alloys produced by the metal-gas eutectic method or GASAR process need to be performed under a certain pressure of hydrogen, and to carry over melt to a tailor-made apparatus that ensures directional solidif ication. Hydrogen is driven out of the melt, and then the quasi-cylindrical pores normal to the solidif ication front are usually formed. In the research, the effects of processing parameters(saturation pressure, solidif ication pressure, temperature, and holding time) on the pore structure and porosity of porous aluminum alloys were analyzed. The mechanical properties of Al-Mg alloys were studied by the compressive tests, and the advantages of the porous structure were indicated. By using the GASAR method, pure aluminum, Al-3wt.%Mg, Al-6wt.%Mg and Al-35wt.%Mg alloys with oriented pores have been successfully produced under processing conditions of varying gas pressure, and the relationship between the f inal pore structure and the solidif ication pressure, as well as the inf luences of Mg quantity on the pore size, porosity and mechanical properties of AlMg alloy were investigated. The results show that a higher pressure of solidif ication tends to yield smaller pores in aluminum and its alloys. In the case of Al-Mg alloys, it was proved that with the increasing of Mg amount, the mechanical properties of the alloys sharply deteriorate. However, since Al-3%Mg and Al-6wt.%Mg alloys are ductile metals, their porous samples have greater compressive strength than that of the dense samples due to the existence of pores. It gives the opportunity to use them in industry at the same conditions as dense alloys with savings in weight and material consumption.

Rheo-diecasting Process for Semi-solid Aluminum Alloys

A novel one-step semisolid processing technique, the rheo-diecasting （RDC） process, was developed, which adapts in situ creation of semisolid metal slurry with fine and spherical solid particles followed by direct shaping of the slurry into a near-net shape component using the existing cold chamber diecasting process. The RDC process was applied to process A356 and A380 aluminum alloys. The resulting microstructures and mechanical properties of RDC products under as-cast and various heat treatment conditions were analyzed. The experimental results show that the RDC samples have an extremely low porosity, a fine and uniform microstructure throughout entire casting, and consequently much improved strength and ductility in the as-cast condition. The strength of RDC A356 alloy can be substantially improved under T5 and T6 heat treatments without loss of ductility.

New Inclusion Assessment Method in Aluminum Alloys——Electrochemical Method for Inclusion Assessment

The existence of inclusion influences the properties of aluminum alloy castings,from which the castings will face scrapping under severe condition.Great efforts on the inclusions in aluminum alloy were made and many inclusion assessment methods were put forward.However,most of the current methods are characterized by time consuming and expensive equipment cost,which limits the application in aluminum industry.Since the aluminum properties are sensitive to the inclusion,this paper tries to establish a new kind of inclusion assessment method.The inclusions were introduced to aluminum melts by adding aluminum scraps.The samples with different inclusion contents were prepared.The microstructure contained inclusions was observed.The inclusion was automatically identified with an image analyzer by setting different grey threshold value,and the inclusion content was obtained.The image analysis shows that inclusions wreck the continuity of the alloy matrix seriously,and the inclusion area percentage increases with the increasing of aluminum scraps.The high and low polarization measurements were conducted in 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution at the temperature of 25 ℃.The electrochemical parameters of the testing materials,such as corrosion potential E k,corrosion current density I k and the linear polarization resistance R p,were obtained.The polarization measurement results show that the linear polarization resistances decrease,the corrosion potentials move towards more negative direction,and the corrosion current densities increase with the increasing of inclusion content.The theoretical analysis of the inclusion content and the corrosion current density was performed.The existence of inclusions makes the microstructure form corrosion microcells between the alloy matrix and inclusions.The impressed current can accelerate the current velocity or corrosion current density.The regression model of the inclusion contents vs.the corrosion current density was obtained.This model can be used to quantitatively analyze the inclusion content in aluminum alloys on the basis of inclusion sensitivity to the inclusion content.It is confirmed that the electrochemical method for inclusion assessment （EcMIA） is simple and reliable,which can provide a new solution for inclusion assessment in aluminum alloy.

Influence of structural factors on the strength properties of aluminum alloys under shock wave loading

The results of measurements of the strength characteristics-Hugoniot elastic limit and spall strength of aluminum and aluminum alloys in different structural states under shock wave loading are presented.Single-crystals and polycrystalline technical grade aluminumА1013 and aluminum alloysА2024,АА6063Т6,А1421,A7,А7075,А3003,A5083,АА1070 in the initial coarse-grained state and ultrafine-grained or nanocrystalline structural state were investigated.The refinement of the grain structure was carried out by different methods of severe plastic deformation such as Equal Chanel Angular Pressing,Dynamic Channel Angular Pressing,High-Pressure Torsion and Accumulative Roll-Bonding.The strength characteristics of shock-loaded samples in different structural states were obtained from the analysis of the evolution of the free surface velocity histories recorded by means of laser Doppler velocimeter VISAR.The strain rates before spall fracture of the samples were in the range of 10^(4)-10^(5 )s^(-1),the maximum pressure of shock compression did not exceed 7 GPa.The results of these studies clearly demonstrate the influence of structural factors on the resistance to high-rate deformation and dynamic fracture,and it is much less than under the static and quasi-static loading.

Neural Network Modeling and Prediction of Surface Roughness in Machining Aluminum Alloys

Artificial neural network is a powerful technique of computational intelligence and has been applied in a variety of fields such as engineering and computer science. This paper deals with the neural network modeling and prediction of surface roughness in machining aluminum alloys using data collected from both force and vibration sensors. Two neural network models, including a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model and a Radial Basis Function (RBF) model, were developed in the present study. Each model includes eight inputs and five outputs. The eight inputs include the cutting speed, the ratio of the feed rate to the tool-edge radius, cutting forces in three directions, and cutting vibrations in three directions. The five outputs are five surface roughness parameters. Described in detail is how training and test data were generated from real-world machining experiments that covered a wide range of cutting conditions. The results show that the MLP model provides significantly higher accuracy of prediction for surface roughness than does the RBF model.

Evolution of insoluble eutectic Si particles in anodic oxidation films during adipic–sulfuric acid anodizing processes of ZL114A aluminum alloys

The effects of insoluble eutectic Si particles on the growth of anodic oxide films on ZL114A aluminum alloy substrates were in- vestigated by optical microscopy （OM） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. The anodic oxidation was performed at 25℃ and a con- stant voltage of 15 V in a solution containing 50 g/L sulfuric acid and 10 g/L adipic acid. The thickness of the formed anodic oxidation film was approximately 7.13 μm. The interpore distance and the diameters of the major pores in the porous layer of the film were within the ap- proximate ranges of 10~20 nm and 5-10 nm, respectively. Insoluble eutectic Si particles strongly influenced the morphology of the anodic oxidation films. The anodic oxidation films exhibited minimal defects and a uniform thickness on the ZL114A substrates; in contrast, when the front of the oxide oxidation films encountered eutectic Si particles, defects such as pits and non-uniform thickness were observed, and pits were observed in the films.

Development of Deformation-Semisolid-Casting (D-SSC) Process and Applications to Some Aluminum Alloys

Recent advances in the semisolid casting technologies are introduced for aluminum alloys.The advantages of the rheocast and thixocast methods to fabricate alloys with refined spheroidizedα-Al particles are described. The deformation-semisolid-casting （D-SSC） process developed by the author＇s group is presented.The D-SSC process is extremely effective to produce microstructures of refined intermetallic compound particles as well as the spheroidizedα-Al particles in the Al-Si based alloys containing highly concentrated Fe.In the D-SSC processed Al-Si-Cu alloy high elongation of about 20% was achieved even contained concentrated impurity of Fe.The D-SSC process is also useful to produce wrought aluminum alloys with microstructures of refinedα-Al particles.

A Model for Evaluation of Grain Sizes of Aluminum Alloys with Grain Refinement Additions

Based on the assumption that the nucleation substrates are activated by constitutional undercooling generated by an adjacent grain growth and solute distribution during the initial solidification, a model for calculation of the grain size of aluminum alloys with the grain refinement is developed, where the nucleation is dominated by two parameters, i.e. growth restriction factor Q and the undercooling parameter P. The growth restriction factor Q is proportional to the initial rate of constitutional undercooling development and can be used directly as a criterion of the grain refinement in the alloys with strong potential nucleation particles. The undercooling parameter P can be regarded as the maximum of constitutional undercooling △Tc. For weak potential nucleation particles, the use of RGS would be more accurate. The experimental data of the grain refinement of pure aluminum and AlSi7 alloys are coincident predicted results with the model.

Thermomechanical response of aluminum alloys under the combined action of tensile loading and laser irradiations

This study reports the investigation of the thermomechanical behavior of aluminum alloys （AI-1060, A1-6061, and A1-7075） under the combined action of tensile loading and laser irradiations. The continuous wave ytterbium fiber laser （wavelength 1080 nm） was employed as the irradiation source, while tensile loading was provided by the tensile testing machine. The effects of various pre-loading and laser power densities on the failure time, temperature distribution, and the deformation behavior of aluminum alloys are analyzed. The experimental results represent the significant reduction in failure time for higher laser power densities and for high preloading values, which implies that preloading may contribute a significant role in the failure of the material at elevated temperature. Fracture on a microscopic scale was predominantly ductile comprising micro-void nucleation, growth, and coalescence. The AI-1060 specimens behaved plastically to some extent, while A1-6061 and A1-7075 specimens experienced catastrophic failure. The reason and characterization of ma- terial failure by tensile and laser loading are explored in detail. A comparative behavior of under-tested materials is also investigated. This work suggests that studies considering only combined loading are not enough to fully understand the mechanical behavior of under-tested materials. For complete characterization, one should consider the effect of heating as well as loading rate and the corresponding involved processes with the help of thermomechanical coupling and the thermal elastic-plastic theory.

Effect of the target positions on the rapid identification of aluminum alloys by using filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy combined with machine learning

Filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy(FIBS)combined with machine learning algorithms was used to identify five aluminum alloys.To study the effect of the distance between focusing lens and target surface on the identification accuracy of aluminum alloys,principal component analysis(PCA)combined with support vector machine(SVM)and Knearest neighbor(KNN)was used.The intensity and intensity ratio of fifteen lines of six elements(Fe,Si,Mg,Cu,Zn,and Mn)in the FIBS spectrum were selected.The distances between the focusing lens and the target surface in the pre-filament,filament,and post-filament were 958 mm,976 mm,and 1000 mm,respectively.The source data set was fifteen spectral line intensity ratios,and the cumulative interpretation rates of PC1,PC2,and PC3 were 97.22%,98.17%,and 95.31%,respectively.The first three PCs obtained by PCA were the input variables of SVM and KNN.The identification accuracy of the different positions of focusing lens and target surface was obtained,and the identification accuracy of SVM and KNN in the filament was 100%and 90%,respectively.The source data set of the filament was obtained by PCA for the first three PCs,which were randomly selected as the training set and test set of SVM and KNN in 3:2.The identification accuracy of SVM and KNN was 97.5%and 92.5%,respectively.The research results can provide a reference for the identification of aluminum alloys by FIBS.

Exploring material flow in friction stir welding using stacked structure of 2024 and 6061 aluminum alloys

An experimental technique based on stacked structures was developed to observe the material flow behavior of the friction stir welding （FSW） process. Analysis of section views along different directions revealed important new details of the material flow in FSW process. In this work, a general flow model of FSW was constructed based on the analysis of different static section views of stacked structure weld. The formation of onion rings was found to be a geometric effect due to layered deposition attd the extrusion occurred at the interface between flow arm （FA） and stirring zone （SZ）.

High Selective Etching of Aluminum Alloys In High Plasma Density Reactor

An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) discharge and its etching behaviors for aluminum alloys were investigated in this report. A radio frequency power supply was used for plasma generation. The unique hardware configuration enabled one to control ion energy separately from plasma density. Plasma properties were measured with a Langmuir probe. Electron temperature, plasma potential and plasma density were found to be comparable with those reported from Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) and other types of reactors[1].A mixture of HBr and chlorine gases were used for this aluminum etch study. Experimental matrices were designed with Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to analyze the process trends versus etch parameters, such as source power, bias power and gas composition. An etch rate of 8500A to 9000A per minute was obtained at 5 to 15 mTorr pressure ranges. Anisotropic profiles with high photoresist selectivity (5 to 1) and silicon dioxide selectivity greater than 10 were achieved with HBr addition into chlorine plasma.Bromine-containing chemistry for an aluminum etch in a low pressure ICP discharge showed great potential for use in ULSI fabrication. In addition, the hardware used was very simple and the chamber size was much smaller than other high density plasma sources.

Process control based on double-side image sensing of keyhole puddle for the VPPA welding of aluminum alloys

The double side image sensing of the keyhole puddle in the variable polarity plasma arc welding of aluminum alloys has been investigated in this paper, to extract the characteristically geometrical size of the keyhole and to realize the feedback controlling for weld formation in the welding process. Some geometrical sizes of the visible keyhole in the front and back images such as the width, height, area, etc. can be used to monitor both the keyhole puddle and the weld formation in the welding process. Under the condition of the varied heat sink, varied gap and misalignment, the trend from normal welding to cutting can be reflected from the variations of geometrical sizes of the keyhole puddle respectively. The keyhole area, the keyhole height and the shape parameters of the keyhole puddle are the key parameters which reflect the trend from normal welding to cutting when meeting the condition of the varied heat sink, varied gap and misalignment respectively. The algorithm for the image processing of the keyhole puddle and the periphery extracting of the visible keyhole developed in the paper can be used to determine real timely the geometrical sizes of the visible keyhole. Artificial neural network is applied to establish the model for predicting the geometrical sizes of the back keyhole puddle. The inputs of the model are the geometrical sizes of the front keyhole puddle and the weld parameters, the outputs of the model are the geometrical sizes of the back keyhole puddle. The model can be used to control the stability of keyhole and the weld formation.

Cathodic cleaning in variable polarity plasma arc welding of aluminum alloys

Variable polarity plasma arc welding (VPPAW) is one of the most excellent processes used for welding aluminum alloys recently. It combines the advantages of variable polarity welding and plasma arc welding, and can achieve the most rational heat distribution and cathodic cleaning. With the VPPAW equipment developed by authors, the cathodic cleaning regularity that is one of the most important problems in VPPAW is investigated in this paper. The results will be helpful in realizing the real cleaning mechanism.

Tsinghua University Tsinghua-TOYO Research and Development Center of Magnesium and Aluminum Alloys Processing Technology

Tsinghua-TOYO Research and Development Center of Magnesium and Aluminum Alloys Processing Technology was officially established between Tsinghua University and TOYO Machinery & Metal Co. on Feb. 26, 2002, which is a non-independent legal research organization located in Department of Mechanical Engineering of Tsinghua University. The center was equipped with one set of 650t automatic magnesium and aluminum alloys diecasting machine and necessary accessories including the melting furnaces for magnesium alloys and aluminum alloys, an accurate magnesium pump to transfer the magnesium alloys to the shot sleeve of the die casting machine, a die temperature controller, and data logging systems for cavity pressure and die temperature distributions, etc. The center is aimed to the research and development of magnesium and aluminum die casting process and their related technologies, and the main research contents include: