A Review of Research on Galvanic Corrosion of Aluminum Alloys

When aluminum alloys are coupled with dissimilar materials, they often act as corrosion anodes and are suscepted to accelerated corrosion. Therefore, deepening our knowledge of such corrosion phenomena, related mechanisms, and elaborating new prediction model is of great theoretical and practical significance. In this paper, such mechanisms are explained from both macroscopic and microscopic points of view by considering several aspects such as the second phase particle type, grain size, and environmental ions. More specifically, different perspectives on such a problem are elaborated, which take into account: the properties of the coupling pair materials, geometrical characteristics, environmental media characteristics, the corrosion regularity of different types of aluminum alloys, the influence of area ratio on anode corrosion current density, the interference of the solution primary ions represented by Cl- and the accompanying ions represented by Al3+. A review is also conducted of the standard test methods used in the study of aluminum alloys galvanic corrosion and of research methods such as the Wire Beam Electrodes Technology (WBE), the Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (SKPFM) technology. Finally, three kinds of inhibition technologies are discussed, including the anodic oxidation treatment, the corrosion inhibitor treatment and the coating protection method.