Simulation Investigation on Environment-Induced Pitting Corrosion on the Metal Surface

Abstract

The prediction of corrosion damage is one of effective research methods in the safety inspection of aging aircraft structures. A mathematical model for quantifying corrosion damage is used in this paper to predict the onset of corrosion on structural surfaces exposed to aggressive environments. Based on the finite difference technique, the evolution process of local pitting corrosion on the surface of aluminum alloy in the medium is simulated, which can consider the sudden onset and the randomness of pitting corrosion. The effect of local ion concentration and oxide film damage on subsequent pitting nucleation was analyzed. Based on the efficient calculation program, the effectiveness of the mathematical model is verified by the comparison between the corrosion damage morphology and the experimental data in the literature. The results show a more widespread distribution of subsequent pits because of stronger aggressive ions are released during the life cycle of active pits and the higher diffusion coefficient of the aggressive ions. The three dimensional morphology is generated by image processing method based on the gray value of the two dimensional image of pits.