Studying of Heat Treatment Influence on Corrosion Behavior of AA6061-T6 by Taguchi Method

In this study the Taguchi method, has been applied to optimize the heat treatment parameters for the corrosion resistance of AA6061 aluminum alloy. The experimental design consisted of four parameters (aging temperature, aging time, quenching environment and NaCl concentration), each containing three levels. Tafel polarization measurements were carried out to determine the corrosion resistance of the heat treatment samples. According to the mean of signal-to-noise ratio analysis, the corrosion resistance of AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy was influenced significantly by the levels in the Taguchi orthogonal array. The optimized parameters for corrosion resistance are 2 h for aging time, 200 °C for aging temperature, ice water for quenching media and environment with 0.5% for NaCl concentration. The percentage of contribution for each parameter was determined by the analysis of variance. The results showed that the NaCl concentration is the most significant parameter affecting the corrosion resistance of the AA6061 Al alloy.