2016 POSTER AWARD RESEARCH LETTERS
Galvanic Corrosion-Induced Fatigue Crack
Initiation and Propagation Behavior in
AA7050-T7451
Noelle Easter C. Co‡,* and James T. Burns*
ABSTRACT
Electrochemical experiments were used to create morphologies
representative of galvanically-induced corrosion between alumi-
num alloy (AA) 7050-T7451 (UNS A97050) and Type 316 steel
(UNS S31600) in a fastener configuration. The effects of these
corrosion damage morphologies on the fatigue behavior were
investigated. Results showed that severe macroscale metrics
considered for discrete pits and general corrosion with surface
recession do not correlate with the location of fatigue crack
initiation. However, for intergranular corrosion, the plane that
had higher number of fissure and higher total fissure depth
tended to correlate to the location of fatigue crack formation.
KEY WORDS: aluminum alloy 7050-T7451, fatigue, pit
morphology
INTRODUCTION
Aluminum alloys are widely used in the aerospace
industry for their high strength-to-weight ratio.1-3
Stainless steel fasteners are often used in built-up
aerospace structures. Such fastener locations elevate
the local stress and are prone to coating failure,
Submitted for publication: May 2, 2016. Revised and accepted: July
6, 2016. Preprint available online: July 6, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/
10.5006/2132. Recipient of first place in the Marcel Pourbaix
Corrosion Science category in the Student Poster Session
‡
at CORROSION 2016, March 2016, Vancouver, Canada.
Corresponding author. E-mail: ncc2bf@virginia.edu.
*
Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering, Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia,
395 McCormick Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22904.
(1)
UNS numbers are listed in Metals and Alloys in the Unified Num-
bering System, published by the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE International) and cosponsored by ASTM International.
ISSN 0010-9312 (print), 1938-159X (online)
CORROSION—Vol. 72, No. 10 16/000177/$5.00+$0.50/0 © 2016, NACE International
enabling the wicking of electrolyte into the crevice
formed by the aluminum substructure and stainless
steel fastener. This galvanic coupling of aluminum and
stainless steel can lead to corrosion damage that will
deleteriously influence the structural integrity of the
aluminum and complicate prediction of the fatigue
life of airframe components. Specifically, nucleation of
fatigue cracking during in-service cyclic loading is
exacerbated by corrosion damage.4-12 A variety of cor-
rosion morphologies can form on the aluminum
substructure based on the local chemistry, potential
distribution, and pH distribution along the geometry
of the fastener holes.13 These corrosion morphologies
can influence the location of the fatigue initiation
as well as the behavior of the fatigue crack
growth.4,7,10,14-17 The objectives of this study were to
quantify the fatigue behavior (total fatigue life and
initiation life) associated with different corrosion
morphologies, and correlate crack formation with
features of the corrosion morphology.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
A 7.60 mm thick dog-bone specimen with a
uniform gauge length of 20.96 mm and reduced gauge
width of 7.60 mm was machined from the thickness/
8-location of a 50 mm thick AA7050-T7451 (UNS
A97050(1)) rolled plate (Zn-6.1, Cu-2.2, Mg-2.2,
Zr-0.11, Fe-0.08, Si-0.04, Ti-0.02, Mn-0.01, Al-balance;
wt%). Tensile yield strength is 471 MPa (L-oriented)
p
and the plane strain fracture toughness is 43 MPa m
for the L-T orientation (as reported by the
manufacturer).
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2016 POSTER AWARD RESEARCH LETTERS

The L-S surface of the AA7050-T7451 fatigue

samples were artificially corroded using different elec-
trochemical techniques justified by a companion
study of the electrochemical conditions within the fas-
tener hole.13 The specific corrosion protocols were
selected to represent a variety of possible corrosion
damage morphologies, specifically: discrete pits,
general corrosion with surface recession, and inter-
granular corrosion (IGC), each of which represented
possible morphologies resulting from an aluminum-
stainless steel galvanic couple. The fatigue specimens
were masked with solvent resistant electroplating tape
and peelable butyl rubber lacquer (Miccro Super
XP2000†), leaving a small exposed area (∼4 mm2) of the FIGURE 1. Fracture surface of AA7050-T7451 fatigue specimen
L-S surface to the predetermined corrosion protocols. tested at relative humidity >90% with maximum stress of 200 MPa,
The samples were held at −700 mV with 0.5 M NaCl + R = 0.5 and frequency of 20 Hz for baseline cycles, and R = 0.1 and
NaAlO2 electrolyte (pH 8) for 1.5 h and 5 h to create frequency of 10 Hz for marker cycles. The marker bands are indi-
discrete pits, and for 72 h to create general corrosion cated by the arrows, and crack grows from the bottom side to top
with surface recession. The IGC samples were pre- side of the image.
pared by exposing a small part of the L-S surface of the
fatigue sample to a droplet of 1 M NaCl + 0.022 M
AlCl3 + 0.05 M K2S2O8 at 96% relative humidity (RH) characterize the fracture surface and measure the
and 30°C inside the RH chamber for 168 h. The lengths between the sets of marker bands. The ini-
droplet of electrolyte was replaced every 24 h. Following tiation life to the first marker band (typically ≈10 μm
the corrosion exposure, the corrosion products on the from the initiation point) was also computed based on
samples were cleaned using HNO3, followed by an ul- the marker band information.5 Aside from the marker
trasonic cleaning in deionized water then methanol. band determination, SEM was also used to identify
The topography of the corrosion damage was charac- the exact location of fatigue crack initiation on the
terized using optical microscopy and white light in- fracture surface.
terferometry. Images taken from the optical microscope
provided a 2D characterization of the corrosion
morphology, while images from the white light inter-
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
ferometry provided profiles of the corrosion damage, Figure 2 shows a plot of the total fatigue life as
thus giving a line-of-sight 3D representation. Because of well as the initiation life for each specimen having
the line-of-sight limitations of the white light inter-
ferometry technique, x-ray computed tomography (XCT)
1,600,000 Total cycles to failure
was used to characterize the IGC specimens.
Initiation life to 10 µm
Three specimens of each corrosion morphology, 1,400,000
as well as three specimens without corrosion damage
Number of Cycles (N)

(pristine), were subjected to fatigue loading along the 1,200,000

L-direction. The specimen was contained within an
1,000,000
acrylic glass chamber to control the RH (>90%). A 53 µm
loading protocol was used to create identifiable marks 800,000
(“marker bands” as seen in Figure 1) on the fracture
600,000
surface of the specimens that enable calculation of
crack formation lives and tracking of the crack pro- 400,000 165 µm
216 µm
gression.4-5,18-20 For baseline cycles, the maximum load 633 µm
200,000
was σmax = 200 MPa, with a frequency of 20 Hz, and a
fatigue loading ratio (R = σmin/σmax) of 0.5. Further 0
details of the marker loading technique can be found P1 P2 P3 A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3 D1 D2 D3
Pristine Discrete Pit, 1.5 h IGC, 168 h Discrete Pit, 5 h Surface Recession, 72 h
elsewhere,4-5,18-21 but generally marker cycles were
performed at a maximum load of σmax = 200 MPa, a FIGURE 2. Plot of total fatigue life of AA7050-T7451 samples fatigue
tested at relative humidity >90%, maximum stress of 200 MPa, R =
frequency of 10 Hz, and a R-ratio of 0.1; the number of
0.5, and frequency of 20 Hz represented by the total number of
marker cycles are typically <5% of the total life and
cycles to failure with initiation life represented by the number of
had little influence on the overall fatigue behavior.5,19,21 cycles to create a 10 μm crack from the initiation point. Arrows on top
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to of the pristine samples indicate that specimen did not fail and testing
is halted at 3 × 106 cycles. Numbers on top indicate the average
† depth of fatigue crack initiation features.
Trade name.

1216 CORROSION—OCTOBER 2016


different corrosion morphologies. The numbers indi-
cated on top of the bars represent the average depth of
the initiation features for each type of corrosion
damage. Fatigue specimens without corrosion damage
did not fail after 3 million cycles; this is represented
by arrows in Figure 2. For all corrosion morphologies,
the corrosion damage on the surface of the specimen
had negligible effect on the reduction of the cross-
sectional area; as such the far field stress is not
changed. In general, broadly corroded specimens have
the deepest damage depth (D) as compared to the
discrete pit and IGC specimens (DSR > DIGC > DDP-5h >
DDP-1.5h).
Critically, Figure 2 shows that the total fatigue life of
AA7050-T7451 was greatly reduced with the pres-
ence of prefatigue corrosion damage. Samples with high
initiation lives also had high total fatigue lives, and
samples with low initiation lives also had low total
fatigue lives. This trend suggests that the initiation
lives of the specimens governed the behavior of the total
fatigue lives. It was also observed that the initiation
lives were greatly reduced even for small levels of cor-
rosion damage. With further damage, the initiation
life plateaued to a low and near-constant value, despite
vastly different corrosion morphologies and severi-
ties. Such a plateau in behavior with increasing corro-
sion severity was similar to what has been reported
previously by Burns, et al.4-5,19,21 The near-constant
initiation life can be related to the dominance of the
interaction of localized corrosion features with under-
lying microstructure discontinuities to nucleate fa-
tigue crack, as detailed in previous studies.4,21 This
mechanistic interpretation had been phenomeno-
logically observed for various morphologies of wide-
spread corrosion,4-5,21-23 but detailed analysis of the
governing mechanisms has been limited to isolated
controlled pitting studies.5,24
This research effort extended prior work4-5 to
quantitatively evaluate the effect of macroscale metrics
associated with various corrosion morphologies on
the crack formation behavior. This provided insights
into any changes in governing crack formation
mechanisms between the different corrosion morphol-
ogies. Furthermore, the mechanism by which vastly
different morphologies demonstrated the same detri-
ment in fatigue crack initiation resistance remains
uncertain for these different morphologies; current data
can inform this knowledge gap. For each morphology
(discrete pitting [1.5 h], surface recession, and IGC),
specific macroscale corrosion metrics that are po-
tentially pertinent to crack formation were broadly
quantified for the entire surface then compared to the
features that nucleated crack formation. These analyses
are presented below.
The pit depth values for discrete pits (1.5 h) were
obtained from the white light interferometry profile
readings, and the histogram is shown in Figure 3. The
depth of the feature that initiated the primary fatigue
CORROSION—Vol. 72, No. 10
2016 POSTER AWARD RESEARCH LETTERS
600
Replicates:
R1
500 R2
Frequency (number of pits)
R3
400
300
200
100
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
µm)
Pit Depth (µ
FIGURE 3. Histogram of pit depths for AA7050-T7451 samples
exposed to 0.5 M NaCl and potentially held at −700 mV for 1.5 h
creating discrete pits. Arrows indicate the location of the fatigue
crack initiation for each fatigue replicate tested at relative humidity
>90% and maximum stress of 200 MPa with R = 0.5 and frequency
of 20 Hz.
crack were indicated by the arrows on the graph. The
pit depth did not govern the location of the fatigue
initiation as the location of crack initiation did not fall
on the deepest portion of the corrosion damage. Pit area
and pit volume were also investigated and showed the
same results; specifically, fatigue cracking did not ini-
tiate at pits having the largest area or largest volume
measurements.
Lam, et al., and Loenhert, et al., reported possible
interaction of cracks and shielding effects when other
cracks are present within the vicinity of the crack.25-26
As such, pit density metrics were also investigated for
discrete pits to represent the possible interactions be-
tween neighboring pits within the area of the exposed
surface. The whole exposed surface was divided into a
grid of 500 μm × 500 μm sections and the pits within
each grid-section were counted. The number of pits
divided by the area represented the pit density value.
From the analysis of the images, fatigue did not initiate
at the areas having the greatest number of pit density,
suggesting that the pit density did not control the lo-
cation of the fatigue initiation (ongoing efforts are
coupling the pit density and average pit size to provide
further rigor).
The specimens having general corrosion with
surface recession were analyzed based on the metrics of
surface roughness. The whole area of the corrosion
damage was divided into smaller 500 μm × 500 μm
sections and individual roughness metrics such as
root mean square (RMS), maximum valley height, and
density of peaks were analyzed. The fatigue crack
initiation did not occur at areas having the highest RMS,
or the other roughness metrics investigated. Aside
from taking the individual effects of roughness metrics,
the combination of their effects was also investigated.
1217
2016 POSTER AWARD RESEARCH LETTERS
5,000
4,000
µm)
Total Fissure Depth (µ
3,000
2,000
1,000
R1
Initiation point R1
R2
0 Initiation point R2
R3
Initiation point R3
0 10 20 30
Number of Fissures per Plane
FIGURE 4. Effect of the combination of total fissure depth and
number of fissures per plane on the location of fatigue initiation of
IGC specimens for AA7050 tested at relative humidity >90%,
maximum stress of 200 MPa, R = 0.5, and frequency of 20 Hz.
Results of the analysis suggested that the combined
RMS and peak density, as well as the combined RMS
and maximum valley depth, did not correlate with the
location of crack initiation.
As a result of the line-of-sight limitations of the
white light interferometry technique, XCT was used to
characterize the IGC specimens after the fatigue test.
The cross-sectional planes with interval of 50 μm along
the L-direction of the fatigue specimens were con-
sidered for the measurements.27 Fissure depths,
number of fissures per plane, and the total length of
fissures per plane were the metrics considered for
specimens with IGC. The individual fissure lengths
per plane were summed and reported as total fissure
depth. These individual metrics listed for IGC did not
dictate the location of the fatigue initiation but the
combination effects of number of fissures per plane
and the total length of fissures per plane tended to
correlate with the crack initiation, as shown in
Figure 4. Contrary to the surface recession and discrete
pit finding, this behavior suggested that these
macroscale interactions will critically influence the
crack formation location.
CONCLUSIONS
v The total fatigue life was highly influenced by the
initiation life. The initiation life plateaued to near-
constant values after a small increase in corrosion
damage.
v Severe “macroscale metrics” did not correlate with
the observed crack formation location for discrete pit-
ting and surface recession morphologies.
v This independence of the fatigue crack initiation
locations to most of the macroscale features of the
corrosion damage pointed to possible strong effect of
microgeometry or microstructure on the location of the
crack initiation site.
1218
v For the IGC morphology, planes with the highest
values of fissure depth and number of fissures
per plane correlated with the crack initiation
location.
v The change in dependence on macroscale features
between surface recession/discrete pitting
and the IGC merit a more detailed investigation of the
local microstructure, local geometry, and small scale
crack propagation within the vicinity of these
features.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
40
We gratefully acknowledge the support from the
Office of Naval Research under the contract ONR:
N00014-14-1-0012 with Mr. William Nickerson as the
Scientific Officer.
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