Stimulated corrosion damage of Ti-Al-N multilayer coatings under interval salt spray and hot condition

Engines for marine are subjected to synergistic chloride corrosion and hot oxidation. Here, we fabricated the Ti-Al-N multilayer coatings on TC4 substrate by multi-arc ion plating. The corrosion behavior of coating was conducted under the stimulated environment with 20 cycles of salt spray (35 ℃ for 22 h) and hot corrosion (500 ℃ for 2 h). Result showed that the vast majority of corrosive products were accumulated with increasing corrosion cycles, causing the substantial spallation and delamination of coating. However, the unique structures composing of TiAlN columnar crystals and TiN-Ti-TiN equiaxial crystals still benefited the excellent protective performance for coating.