Some Aspects of the Corrosion Resistance of Aluminium Alloys in a Marine Atmosphere

Abstract

In this article a resume is given of the principal obsevations made during the course of exposure in a natural atmosphere during some twenty years, while choosing the most characteristic examples. The following points will be examined: Resistance to spray and mist of aluminium-magnesium, aluminium-magnesium-silicon, aluminium- zinc-magnesium, and aluminium-copper magnesium rolled alloys, and of cast alloys; Behaviour of welds, and of contacts with steel and cement; Behaviour during immersion in the sea, and corrosion by differential aeration; Protection by anodisation. These observations have been made during exposure at the experimental stations of the Pechiney Group, in marine atmospheres at Salin-de-Giraud (Mediterranean), Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Biarritz and Ostend, and in an industrial atmosphere at Aubervilliers.