The corrosion mechanism of a stainless steel electrode in the dynamic melting of Al at high temperature

Experimental investigations on corrosion mechanism of stainless steel electrode in the dynamic melting aluminum liquid are made by scanning electron microscopy and microstructure and composition analyses by electron probe analysis combined with metallic phase analysis. It can be concluded that the corrosion process is mainly composed of physical corrosion (flowing and scouring corrosion) and chemical corrosion (forming FeAl and Fe2Al5) and the two mechanisms usually operate simultaneously. The corrosion interface thickness was found to be about 10 μm, which is different to the usual interface width of hundreds of micrometers in the static melting of Al with iron matrix.