Comprehensive Studies into Microstructural Modifications and Corresponding Electrochemical Behaviors of Metal Alloys from Solid-State Joining and Processing Methods

The electrochemical behaviors resulting from the microstructural modifications from several joining and processing techniques are assessed and compared to that of the parent materials in a series of studies. Experimental and numerical methods are implemented to explore the electrochemical behaviors such as galvanic corrosion, passivity, and pitting corrosion of the modified microstructures in detail. It is observed that significant microstructural changes such as grain refinement, increased dislocation densities, and high local strain greatly impact the electrochemical behaviors of the resulting microstructures. Numerical models are built using electrochemical parameters extracted from the experimental approaches to perform additional studies on the electrochemical behaviors. Afterward, the numerical results are further validated by comparing them to the experimental results. Additionally, the models in these studies are capable of tracking the moving anodic boundaries and also performing additional studies which are difficult to do experimentally.