Abstract: The corrosion behavior of typical high-strength aluminum alloy LY12 was studied by accelerated corrosion tests of cyclic wet-dry-immersion containing media of NaHSO3 and NaCl to simulate the corrosion process in different atmosphere environment, and the corrosion mechanism was also discussed. The main experimental techniques include mass loss, morphological check, analysis of corrosion products and electrochemical measurement. The result shows that the mass loss of LY12, with or without cladding, has linear relationship with test time in the three kinds of chemical media, 0.02 mol/L NaHSO3, 0.006 mol/L NaCl and 0.02 mol/L NaHSO3+0.006 mol/L NaCl, respectively. A layer of cladding on high-strength aluminum alloy can raise evidently the resistance of atmospheric corrosion. Cl− can promote pitting generation on the oxide film of LY12 when HOS−3 exists, LY12 can react much intensely with HOS−3 derived from anions.

Key words: aluminum alloy; atmospheric corrosion; accelerated corrosion test; surface analysis; electrochemical measure