Strength and Intergranular Corrosion of Aluminum Alloys: Effect of Cooling Rate

Abstract

Although cooling rate and strength correlations for a wide range of quenching conditions are routinely discussed, cooling time–temperature data are shown less often. However, intergranular corrosion is also cooling rate and pathway dependent, but such data correlation is much less likely to be encountered, especially by commercial quenchant suppliers. Even cooling rate data, strength, intergranular corrosion, and either residual stress or distortion correlations are more rarely reported together. This entry discusses the mechanism of intergranular corrosion and provides an illustrative example of the dependence of intergranular corrosion on the cooling rate.