Corrosion of Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys

Author: T. D. Burleigh

Publisher: ASM

Publication date: 1999

Abstract:

Corrosion problems associated with aluminum and its alloys are as varied as the products made from them. • Aluminum has high resistance to corrosion under the majority of service conditions, and no colored salts are formed to stain adjacent surfaces or discolor products with which it comes into contact. Aluminum has one-third the density of steel, which means a component can be 1.5 times thicker than a steel version while remaining 50% lighter. Because of this, aluminum and its alloys are used in many applications such as buildings, power lines and equipment exposed to severe weather, large ship superstructures, the transportation field (road tanker and truck transports, rail-road and subway cars), pipelines carrying water and compatible products, the beverage industry (soft drink and beer cans), and the chemical industry in the form of tanks, piping, barges, reaction vessels, and distillation columns (see Chapter 1 for a review of applications for aluminum). In these environments, the two metals polarized highly so that the additional corrosion current impressed onto aluminum with them in a galvanic cell is small.