Aging Treatment to Increase the Erosion-Corrosion Resistance of \AA6063\ Alloys for Marine Application

By Herman Pratikno
Published in Procedia Earth and Planetary Science NULL 2015

Abstract

\AA6063\ alloys are widely used for boat and shipbuilding. A moving aluminium alloy ship in seawater is susceptible to erosion corrosion. Erosion-corrosion is an accelerated corrosion attack in metals due to a relative motion of corrosive fluid. For that reason, an improvement in erosion corrosion resistance to the aluminium alloy is needed. In this work, the \AA6063\ alloys were prepared by casting. The alloys were solutionised at 535 oC for 6 hours and followed by water-quenching. The alloys were then artificial aged at 200 oC for 5 hours and followed by natural aging for 14 days. Erosion-corrosion tests were carried out in 3.5% NaCl solution. The solution was stirred using a magnetic stirer at rotation speeds of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 rpm. It was found that the solution and aging treatments have increased erosion-corrosion resistance of \AA6063\ alloys. A better erosion-corrosion resistance was obtained by a combining both artificial and natural aging process. In this condition, the alloy posseses corrosion rates of 0.210 mm/year for 0 rpm and 5.306 mm/year for 600 rpm of rotation speeds respectively.

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