Corrosion behavior of riveted joints with electrophoretic treatment in neutral salt spray environment

Abstract This study delves into the corrosion behavior of riveted joints with electrophoretic treatment in a neutral salt spray environment using tensile test and surface analysis. The results showed that the open‐circuit potentials of the dual‐phase steels (590DP and 780DP) exceeded those of the AlSi 10 MnMg‐T7 and JDA1b die‐casting aluminum alloys by 100 mV, and exceeded that of the AA6063‐T6 extruded aluminum alloy by 50 mV. AlSi 10 MnMg‐T7 and JDA1b die‐casting aluminum alloys were more susceptible to corrosion in contrast to the AA6063‐T6 extruded aluminum alloy. The corrosion mechanism of the steel/aluminum riveted joints was not only galvanic corrosion but also oxygen concentration polarization. Over the 720‐h corrosion period, the failure loads of the riveted joints were not reduced at all. On the contrary, they increased at least 17% for the two‐sheet self‐piercing riveting (SPR) joints, 6% for the three‐sheet SPR joints, and 4% for the flow drill screw joints.