Chemical conditions inside occluded regions on corroding aircraft aluminum alloys

Corrosion of aluminum alloy structures costs the US Air Force in the order of US$1×10⁹ annually. Corrosion develops in areas of overlap such as aircraft lap-splice joints and under protective organic coatings. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has been used to determine the local chemistries at these corrosion sites of solutions that were extracted using a microsampling system. Analysis of the local solution within lap-splice joints from aircraft has been performed in two ways: rehydration of corrosion products and direct microsampling. The solutions collected were analyzed with CE to quantitatively determine the species present during corrosion. The most common ions detected were Cl^?, NO₂^?, NO₃^?, HCO₃^?, K⁺, Al³⁺, Ca²⁺, Na⁺ and Mg²⁺. Studies of the solution chemistry under local coating defects are required to understand coating failure and develop more durable coatings. A microsampling system and micro pH sensor were developed to extract solution from and measure pH in defects with diameters as small as 170 μm. Actively corroding defects contained high concentrations of Cl^?, Al³⁺, Mg²⁺, Mn²⁺ and Cu²⁺ whereas only trace levels of Mg²⁺ were found in repassivated defects. The effects of these species on initiation and propagation of corrosion are discussed.