Investigation of Fluid Circulation Effect on the Internal Corrosion Resistance of Automotive Heater Core

An experimental test bench has been developed to study the effect of flow on the corrosion behavior of the internal surface of heater core tubes. The experimental device allows the electrochemical behavior of the system to be investigated under different liquid compositions, different temperatures (between 40 and 80°C) and different fluid velocities (between 0.5 m/s and 1.5 m/s) at different test duration (up to 100h). The study is focused on the water side corrosion resistance of brazed AA4343/AA3003*/AA4343 material, i.e. the residual Al-Si cladding. The increase of the temperature has a preponderant influence on the corrosion rate by comparison with the variation of the fluid velocity. The increase of fluid velocity rather limits the corrosion degradation.