Time Dependent Analysis of Galvanic Corrosion on Mild Steel with Magnesium Alloy (AE44) Rivet-Plate Joint System Using COMSOL Multiphysics Simulation

Abstract

In this work, mild steel with magnesium alloy (AE44)-based rivet-plate joint model has been created to investigate the galvanic corrosion taking place between the rivet and plate joint with help of COMSOL multiphysics software. Initially, mild steel rivets have been coupled galvanically with magnesium alloy (AE44) and 1.6 wt% NaCl is surrounded all over the boundary of electrodes with electrical conductivity of 2.5 S/m. The galvanic corrosion taking place between rivet and plates has been investigated with help of various parameters such as electrolyte potential, electrolyte current density, electrode potential vs adjacent reference and total electrode thickness change. Electrolyte current density distribution revealed that rivet-plate junction area is most affected among all the surfaces with the current density value of 103 A/m2. Further, the electrolyte current density has been used to calculate the corrosion rate (CR) found to be 247.95 mm/year at the junction. Electrode potential analysis disclosed that the electrode potential value is more negative on anode surface with maximum negative value of − 1.53 V whereas cathode surface having electrode potential value of − 1.25 V. We found that 1.92 mm of anode thickness has been degraded in the rivet-joint system within 72 h. However, upon increasing the anode area the anode thickness degradation reduced to 1.83 mm. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.