Corrosion resistance evaluation of the different zones on the AA2024-T3 and AA7475-T651 alloys welded by FSW

Abstract

The aeronautic industry has a great interest in joining dissimilar aluminium alloys used in different parts of an aircraft. The Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process has been considered an effective alternative to conventional techniques for the welding of high strength alumin-ium alloys. However, this procedure results in zones with different microstructures due to thermal and thermomechanical effects involved during the joining process, leading to the formation of the thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ), the heat affected zone (HAZ), the stir zone (nugget), and the unaffected base metal (BM). As the corrosion resistance of materials depends on their microstructures, the aim of this study was to investigate the intrin-sic corrosion resistance of the different zones of the AA2024-T3 and AA7475-T761 alloys welded by FSW, without considering the coupling effects between the different zones. This was achieved by evaluating the corrosion resistance of each individual zone in 0.1 M Na2SO4 + 1 mM NaCl solution by electrochemical techniques, such as open circuit potential meas-urements, polarization curves, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, using an elec-trochemical cell with an exposed area of 0.78 mm2. The electrochemical results showed that the lowest corrosion resistance was associated to the nugget zone, on which a galvanic cou-pling between the 2024 and 7475 alloys takes place. The corrosion resistance was also low-ered on the TMAZ of both alloys. This behaviour was associated to the enhanced precipita-tion of the η phase (MgZn2) at the grain boundaries in the 7475 alloy and to the coarsening of S phase (AlCuMg) precipitates in the 2024 alloy, both processes favoured by the thermome-chanical effects in these specific zones as demonstrated by TEM analysis.