Combined Corrosion and Wear of Aluminium Alloy 7075-T6

Abstract

The aluminium alloy 7075-T6 is widely used in engineering. In some applications, like slurry transport, corrosion and abrasion occur simultaneously, resulting in early material failure. In the present work, we investigated the combined effect of corrosion and wear on the aluminium alloy 7075-T6. We performed two series of wear experiments to vary the conditions and severity of corrosion environment: chemically by using ethanol, deionized water and seawater, and electrochemically by applying various potentials using a potentiostat in seawater. Results show that, in seawater, the wear rate was higher than in deionized and ethanol; and in the potentiostat experiments, at the anodic potentials, the wear rates were higher than at the open circuit potential and the cathodic potentials. Seawater is the most corrosive one among the three liquids and the corrosion products can be easily removed. When applying anodic potentials, corrosion is accelerated, and the higher wear rate confirms that higher corrosion rate leads to higher wear rate due to the formation and removal of corrosion products during tribocorrosion.