Bipolar Electrochemical Accelerated Corrosion of Additively Manufactured 6061 Aluminum

Bipolar electrochemical (BPE) cells are commonly used in industrial manufacturing and budding research has shown promise in using BPE cells to create valid accelerated corrosion models in traditional ferrous metals. In conventional electrochemical testing a single sample is polarized to induce accelerated corrosion. For BPE, a single sample is able to experience a range of polarization levels and can provide broad corrosion performance information that would otherwise require numerous experiments to capture. The efficacy of BPE testing is largely determined by the cell design and experimental parameters. The initial goal of this research is to successfully build and demonstrate a working BPE cell; effective at inducing accelerated corrosion in additively manufactured 6061 Aluminum that aligns with traditionally accepted corrosion acceleration models.