The purpose of this paper is to study the corrosion behaviour of Al-12Zn-3Mg-2.5Cu alloy by cast, precipitation hardening and non-isothermal step rolling cum cold/cryo rolling (−80 and −196°C) in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution.
Aluminium alloy with high alloying concentration (Zn: 12 per cent, Mg: 3 per cent, Cu: 2.5 per cent) was prepared by squeeze casting method with controlled process parameters. The cast alloy was solution treated at 450°C for 24 h and aged at 120°C with varying time intervals. Initially, the alloy also underwent non-isothermal step rolling from 6 mm to 3 mm at 400-100°C at the step of 100ºC with 15% reduction in thickness. Non-isothermal rolled alloy (3 mm thickness) was the starting material for further rolling at three different temperatures, such as room temperature, −80 and −190°C with 85 per cent reduction. Microstructural evolution during precipitation and thermo-mechanical processing was studied with the help of optical microscopy and electron microscopy. A potentio-dynamic polarization study was performed to evaluate the corrosion behaviour of Al-12Zn-3Mg-2.5Cu alloy processed in different conditions in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution.
There is a distinct evidence that the alloy exhibits varying corrosion resistance by changing its structural features. In fact, the alloy with ultra-fine grained structure exhibits good corrosion resistance than that of alloy in cast. This is attributed to a greater grain boundary region with high dislocation density, and plastic strain adversely affects the corrosion resistance.
The results obtained by this investigation help in understanding the effect of precipitation hardening and non-isothermal step rolling cum cold/cryo rolling (−80 and −196°C) on corrosion behaviour.
