Characterization of corroding aluminium alloys with electrochemical noise and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and spontaneous voltage fluctuation measurements were made on three orthogonal faces of 7039-T64 and 2519 aluminium alloy specimens during 10 day exposure periods into aerated 3% NaCl solutions. The spontaneous voltage fluctuations generated by the specimens were analysed with two techniques designed to reveal the stochastic character of these signals and their fractal dimension to establish practical correlation between noise measurements and the degree of pitting of the corroding aluminium specimens. Attempts were made to correlate the results of these analyses with parameters measurable by microscopic examination of the specimens or calculated from EIS measurements. During this study it was found that the slope of the voltage fluctuations and the depression angle of EIS results were both good indicators of the pit density observable on the corroded aluminium specimens.