A study was undertaken to examine the corrosion behavior of 5456-H117 aluminum in high velocity sea water. Experimental data was obtained using a high velocity flow channel operated with natural sea water. The results show that both the rate and mode of corrosion are velocity-dependent. The corrosion rate was shown to increase significantly with increasing velocity. Morphological changes were observed as a function of velocity. The observed changes suggest that the basic mechanism for high velocity corrosion of 5456-H117 aluminum involves film disruption/removal leading to enhanced micropitting about intermetallic particles.

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