[Research Paper]

Keywords: 6061-T6, Cavitation-erosion, Electrochemical damage, Amplitude, Hybrid experiment

Corros. Sci. Tech. , 2020, 19(6) pp. 318-325

® 10.14773/CST.2020.19.6.318

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Received: December 15, 2020;  Revised: December 21, 2020;  Accepted: December 21, 2020

Abstract:
Generally, Al alloys of 5000 and 6000 series show excellent weldability, workability, and specific strength, and are widely used in ship building. A combined experiment via cavitation erosion and corrosion damage involving 6061-T6 Al alloy was performed using potentiodynamic polarization under cavitation erosion (hybrid experiments) with amplitude (cavitation strength). The corrosion current density was approximately 52-fold higher at 30 μm than under static conditions, suggesting that the amplitude greatly affected the damage. The degree of damage increased with increasing cavitation amplitude. After the hybrid experiment, the corrosion rate was compared according to the weight loss and damage depth, and the relationship between the two values was expressed as alpha value. The alpha (α) values at amplitudes of 5 μm, 10 μm and 30 μm were 5.11, 12.81 and 8.74, respectively, suggesting that the α value at 10 μm was greater than at 5 μm, and indicating local corrosion damage. However, the α value at 30 μm was smaller than that of 10 μm, which is attributed to higher damage via uniform corrosion than damage induced by local corrosion.