Corrosion of aluminum-matrix composites. Status report

Light-weight Al/matrix composites, some of which may find applications in military or other vehicles, have not been examined extensively with regard to corrosion behavior. This paper collects the corrosion data that are available to summarize the observations made, identify questions that need attention and assess the potential corrosion characteristics of these materials. The problems that may be encountered include selective attack at fiber/matrix or other interfaces (B/Al, G/Al), galvanic coupling with a continuous cathodic fiber (G/Al) and segregated matrix microstructures resulting from solidification processing (Al sub 2 O sub 3 /Al, SiC/Al). Additional testing is required. Attractive candidates for further development efforts would be those composites for which the corrosion problems turn out to be relatively minor ones and which also have favorable estimated production costs. Aluminum alloys discussed which were used as matrix materials were 1100, 2024, 6061 and Al--Li alloys. 35 ref.--AA