Effect of ultrasonic rolling on local corrosion induced by second phase of 6061 aluminum alloy

Abstract

USRP (ultrasonic surface rolling processing) was used to change the surface layer of 6061 aluminum alloy, so as to realize the change of the second phase microstructure of 6061 aluminum alloy by USRP under different static pressure conditions to improve corrosion resistant, which was characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, laser confocal microscopy, scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy, etc. Based on the principle of microzone galvanic corrosion and considering the impedance of solution and oxide, the correlation law between the size of the second phase and the development of local corrosion was obtained. The effect of the size of the second phase on the development of local corrosion was verified by in-situ observation using laser confocal microscope. The results show that the initial self-corrosion current density of aluminum alloy in 3.5%(mass fraction) NaCl solution is only 1/15 of that of the untreated sample, the corrosion rate is reduced by 93.04%, when the surface layer is rolled with 0.10 MPa static pressure. The Mg2Si phase has no significant morphology change during the rolling process, and it has no significant effect on the corrosion performance before and after USRP. The AlFeSi phases with long strip continuous distribution are refined into micro- and nano-scale dispersion distributions under the action of USRP. The fully refined AlFeSi phase weakens the galvanic corrosion effect due to the reduction of the local anode/cathode area ratio of the corrosion microcell, which promotes the metastable pitting nucleation rate of the aluminum alloy matrix, but also cause the rapid dissolution of the aluminum alloy itself. When self-dissolution occurs or Al2O3 oxide film is formed in the inner wall of metastable corrosion hole, the electrochemical corrosion effect of AlFeSi relative to aluminum alloy matrix is greatly weakened, so as to improve the corrosion resistance of 6061 aluminum alloy as a whole.

Keywords

• 6061 aluminum
• ultrasonic rolling
• alfesi phase
• localized corrosion
• galvanic corrosion