Intergranular corrosion of 2024 alloy in chloride solutions

Experiments were performed to determine the propagation kinetics of intergranular corrosion on 2024 aluminum alloy immersed in 1 and 3 M chloride solutions. Tests consisting of immersion in a corrosive solution followed by optical observations on sectioned samples were carried out. This method was found to be time consuming and led to a lack of reproducibility due to the random nature of the corrosion attacks. Another method proved to be more efficient; it consisted of measuring the load to failure on precorroded tensile specimens vs preimmersion time in an aggressive environment. This method was found to allow the mean depth of the corrosion defects to be determined. Further, in 1 and 3 M chloride solution, intergranular corrosion led to the formation of a nonbearing zone, the thickness of which was equal to the mean depth of the corrosion defects. This corroded zone explained the premature failure of the specimens when a uniaxial tensile stress was applied.