Evolution of corrosion damage in an aluminum alloy: an experimental and numerical study

Abstract

In this paper, the results of a recent study on the environment-induced damage behavior of aluminum (Al) alloy 2024-T3, which is often a preferred choice for use in a spectrum of aircraft structural applications, are presented and discussed. Accelerated corrosion tests by way of exposure of test specimens of the alloy to an aggressive aqueous environment were carried out at ambient temperature (27°C). A numerical approach, based on the meshless peridynamic method, was developed to study the morphology of damage caused by the aqueous environment by way of pitting. To improve the numerical accuracy while concurrently reducing the solution time, an implicit finite-difference method was developed to solve the peridynamic control equation. The numerical algorithm was implemented in a Matlab program and was applied to simulate the evolution of pits resulting as a direct consequence of sustained exposure to the aqueous environment. The numerical predictions accord reasonably well with the experimental findings and results, thereby providing adequate proof that the simulation algorithm based on the meshless peridynamic method is effective at predicting both the nucleation and growth of the damage in the form of pits arising as a direct consequence of exposure to an aggressive aqueous environment.