A comparative investigation of corrosion behavior and the concurrent acoustic emission of AZ31 Mg alloy under NaCl and Na2SO4 solution droplets

In this work, corrosion behavior and the concurrent acoustic emission (AE) signals of AZ31 alloy under NaCl and Na2SO4 solution droplets were comparatively investigated in combination with in-situ optical microscopy observations. It was observed that after a short initial corrosion accompanied by the growth and rupture of H2 bubbles, the later corrosion behavior of AZ31 alloy mainly developed into filiform corrosion under NaCl solution droplet and pitting corrosion under Na2SO4 solution droplet. AE signals were detected in both cases. In particular, AE parameters of amplitude and duration were found to well identify filiform and pitting corrosion. AE signals were mainly correlated with the observed evolution of H2 bubbles of different shapes and positions, i.e., regularly round bubbles grew and ruptured at the filament head near the metal surface during filiform corrosion; whereas irregularly-shaped bubbles grew and ruptured at the pit mouth during pitting corrosion.