Mechanical and corrosion assessment of friction self-piercing rivet joint of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer and magnesium alloy AZ31B

In the present work, thermoset carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) was spot joined to magnesium alloy AZ31B by a friction self-piercing riveting (F-SPR) process. Lap shear tensile and cross-tension testing were used to evaluate the mechanical joint performance. An average lap shear tensile load of 5.18 kN was achieved, while an average of 2.81 kN was found from cross-tension testing. All F-SPR samples showed pull-out of AZ31B after mechanical testing, indicating good mechanical interlocking between the steel rivet and AZ31B. Corrosion potential was measured for each material to establish the galvanic corrosion characteristics. As expected, AZ31B was found to be the most active, while thermoset CFRP was the most noble. The steel rivet fell between the AZ31B (active) and the thermoset CFRP (noble). Salt fog corrosion testing (ASTM B-117) was performed to evaluate the corrosion performance of the uncoated F-SPR joint. With up to 200 h of exposure, the post-corroded F-SPR joint integrity retained 81.2% of the preexposure F-SPR joint strength with AZ31B pull-out failure mode. From cross-sectional analysis of the F-SPR joint, extensive corrosion of AZ31B was observed at the joint and other exposure areas. However, steel rivet was not significantly corroded potentially due to sacrificial anode effect by which AZ31B corroded first in the galvanic couple.