For aircraft alloys that have received surface treatments, primers, and topcoats to control self-corrosion due to precipitate phases, high-strength fasteners made of stainless steel or titanium alloys are the most obvious point of attack due to galvanic mismatches between the materials. However, the electrolytes that form from atmospheric processes can differ widely in composition and thickness. Dissolved oxygen concentrations vary due to temperature and salinity changes in the electrolyte. Recent attempts to model atmospheric corrosion have suggested that, at high salt loadings on the surface, electrolytes can form that have water layer thicknesses that appear as bulk electrolytes in terms of oxygen transport¹. Experiments using rotating disk electrode (RDE) measurements and polarization curve data,² have suggested an upper bound of approximately 800 mm on the diffusion layer thickness for oxygen that can be expected to form in a thin film of water. At distances beyond this thickness, convective flow is expected to dominate oxygen transport. In this report, we compare the results of RDE experiments that simulate thin film behavior on different substrate materials in different electrolytes with polarization data obtained under actual electrolyte thin films equilibrated at different relative humidity values, and bulk polarization measurements, as shown in Figure 1, in order to determine the effects of ohmic drop on the measurements and isolate relevant kinetic parameters. Isolating these effects is important in order to accurately model the corrosion currents arising from galvanic couples in which the oxides at which the reduction reactions are occurring can be changing in response to the changes in the electrolyte as the environment changes.

Figure 1. Bulk cathodic polarization curves in 0.6M NaCl at 25◦C for Pt, UNS S31600, and UNS R56400.

This work was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, ONR, under grant/contract number N0001418WX00826; the views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Navy or the U.S. government.

References

1 Van den Steen, N., Simillion, H., Dolgikh, O., Terryn, H. & Deconinck, J. An integrated modeling approach for atmospheric corrosion in presence of a varying electrolyte film. Electrochimica Acta 187, 714-723, doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2015.11.010 (2016).

2 Liu, C., Srinivasan, J. & Kelly, R. G. Electrolyte Film Thickness Effects on the Cathodic Current Availability in a Galvanic Couple. J Electrochem Soc 164, C845-C855, doi:10.1149/2.1641713jes (2017).