Effect of Increasing Salinity to Corrosion Resistance of 5052 Aluminum Alloy in Artificial Seawater

The purpose of this research is to investigate the corrosion resistance of 5052 aluminum alloy to increasing salinity in sea water. Salt spray chamber was used to measure and compare the corrosion rate of 5052 aluminum alloy with weight reduction method. The experiment was conducted by varying the three concentrations of NaCl solution to compare the corrosion rate of the metal. The test specimens used were aluminum alloy 5052 with length of 6 cm, width of 4 cm and thickness of 0.7 cm. The tests were carried out for 48 hours, aggressive NaCl solutions with concentrations of 3.5%, 4% and 5% were used as an artificial sea water corrosion medium and the temperature in the test chamber was maintained at 35 °C. Corrosion rate for 3.5% NaCl solution, 4% NaCl solution and 5% NaCl solution were 0.197 mm/year, 0.541 mm/year and 0.558 mm/year, respectively. The higher concentration leads to greater corrosion rate.