Developing an Empirical Relationship to Predict Corrosion Rate of AZ31B Magnesium Alloy under Sodium Chloride Environment

Magnesium alloys have gained considerable interest as a structural material for automotive and aerospace applications due to their low-density, high specific strength and good castability. As a consequence, these light alloys have a promising future. The limitation of low corrosion resistance restricts their practical applications. Corrosion behaviour of the AZ31B magnesium alloy was evaluated by conducting immersion corrosion test in NaCl solution at different chloride ion concentrations, pH value and immersion time. An attempt was also made to develop an empirical relationship to predict the corrosion rate of AZ31B magnesium alloy. Three factors, five level, central composite rotatable design matrix was used to minimize the number of experimental conditions. Response surface methodology was used to develop the relationship. The developed relationship can be effectively used to predict the corrosion rate of AZ31B magnesium alloy at 95 % confidence level.