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Thermal Decoating of Aerospace Aluminum Alloys for Aircraft Recycling

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Abstract

Recycling of aircraft aluminum alloys can be complex due to the presence of their corrosion protection coating that includes inorganic compounds containing Cr(VI). In this study, the characterization and thermal degradation behavior of the coating on aluminum substrates coming from an aircraft destined for recycling are presented. Elements such as Sr, Cr, Si, Ba, Ti, S, C, and O were found in three different layers by EDS elemental mapping corresponding to SrCrO4, Rutile-TiO2, SiO2, and BaSO4 with an overall particle size D 50 = 1.96 µm. The thermal degradation profile analyzed by TGA showed four different stages. The temperature of complete degradation at the fourth stage occurred at 753.15 K (480 °C) at lower heating rates. At higher heating rates and holding an isotherm at the same temperature, the residence time to fully decompose the aircraft coating has been estimated as 4.0 ± 0.2 minutes. The activation energy calculated by the Flynn–Wall–Ozawa and the modified Coats-Redfern methods for multiple fraction of decomposition showed a non-constant behavior indicating the complexity of the reaction. Finally, the concentration of Cr(VI) released to the environment during thermal decoating was obtained by UV–Vis spectroscopy. It was found that 2.6 ± 0.1 µg of Cr(VI)/mm2 of aluminum substrate could be released unless adequate particle controls are used.

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Notes

  1. The crystalline phases were identified using the JCPDS cards 00-004-0787, 00-021-1276, 00-035-0743, and 01- 085-0457 from the PANanalytical X'pert high-score plus ICDD PDF 2003 database.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Consortium de Recherche et d’Innovation en Aérospatiale au Québec (CRIAQ), Bombardier, Bell Helicopter, Sotrem-Maltech, BFI, Nano Quebec, and Aluminerie Alouette for their project founding, as well as the Secretary of Public Education of México for the complementary scholarship awarded to one of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Wong Building, Montreal, QC, H3A 0C5, Canada

    Jose Alberto Muñiz Lerma (Ph.D. Student), In-Ho Jung (Associate Professor) & Mathieu Brochu (Associate Professor)

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  1. Jose Alberto Muñiz Lerma
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  2. In-Ho Jung
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  3. Mathieu Brochu
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Correspondence to Mathieu Brochu.

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Manuscript submitted November 21, 2014.

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Muñiz Lerma, J.A., Jung, IH. & Brochu, M. Thermal Decoating of Aerospace Aluminum Alloys for Aircraft Recycling. Metall Mater Trans B 47, 1976–1985 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-016-0629-6

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