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.