The high temperature oxidation and wear behaviors of Ti–35V–15Cr–0.3Si–0.1C fireproof titanium alloy were examined at 873 and 1073 K. The oxidation weight gain after oxidation at 1073 K for 100 h was significantly larger than that at 873 K. Based on the analyses of the oxidation reaction index and oxide layer, the oxidation process at 1073 K was mainly controlled by oxidation reaction at the interface between the substrate and oxide layer. Dry sliding wear tests were performed on a pin-on-disk tester in air conditions. The friction coefficient was smaller at 1073 K than that at 873 K, while the volume wear rate at 1073 K was larger due to formation of amount of oxides on the worn surface. When the wearing temperature increased from 873 to 1073 K, the wear mechanism underwent a transition from a combination of abrasive wear and oxidative wear to only oxidative wear.

Corrosion behavior is critical to the application of lightweight aluminum/steel joints using new resistance spot welding (RSW) technology. The study investigated the corrosion mechanism and the shear strength of RSW joints comprising 1.2 mm 5182 aluminum and 1.5 mm DP780 galvanized steel. Electrochemical corrosion tests were conducted on the base materials and various positions of the welds in a 3.5% NaCl solution. This result revealed that the corrosion susceptibility of the interfacial intermetallic compound (IMC) layer was not accelerated by the aluminum nugget because of the noble corrosion potential. Subsequently, the spray acceleration test was employed to investigate the corrosion mechanism. It is noteworthy that microcracks, as well as regions enriched with silicon and oxygen at the interface front, are preferential to corrosion during salt spray exposure, instead of the IMC layer. Moreover, the shear strength of the joints decreases with the reduction in the effective joint area after the salt spray exposure of the weld joints. This research systematically explored the corrosion behavior and its relationship with the mechanical properties of Al alloy/steel RSW joints.

The iron contamination on stainless steels was evaluated based on a quantification of colour change after colour reaction of indicators, and the roles of phenanthroline and ferroxyl solutions as colour change indicators were compared during the quantification. The results showed that the sensitivity and the solution stability of phenanthroline solution were superior to the ferroxyl solution. The redness degree using the phenanthroline solution increased with increasing iron contamination, but decreased with increasing Cr content of stainless steels. The potentiodynamic polarisation curves showed that iron contamination deteriorated the local corrosion resistance of stainless steel. The measured values of redness degree have a linear relationship with the breakdown potentials obtained from the polarisation curves. It is supposed that the preferential corrosion of free iron particles and the surface damage induced by the particles is responsible for corrosion degradation of stainless steels.