Found lots of relevant info here
http://www.finishing.com/271/67.shtmlHere's a sample:
Quote:
I have an application were I have a 1/4" thick plate of aluminum in direct contact with a sheet of 304 Stainless Steel. Also I want to use an all aluminum pop rivet (both body and mandrel made out of aluminum)which will fasten the 1/4" thick plate with stainless steel. This application will see sea coast environment (but not an underwater application). Is there a chance of galvanic corrosion especially the pop rivets weakening out? I am looking for a quick solution. I looked for similar stainless steel pop rivets, but they are not available in the time frame I need to work with.
Quote:
Aluminum in a seacoast environment is not a long term proposition. However, you may want to consider using stainless steel fasteners. The rate of galvanic corrosion is related directly to the ratio of cathode area (stainless) to anode area (aluminum). In other words a relatively small anode area like an aluminum pop rivet will be attacked much faster than a large one like the 1/4" plate. Good luck
This next quote is well worth reading too:
Quote:
Picture a conventional dry cell battery still sitting in it's original packaging. The shell is made of zinc while the center rod is carbon/graphite. The two dissimilar materials are not touching each other, but there is an electrolyte, a salty liquid path between them (the black glop). Nothing is happening so far, and the battery will have a long shelf life.
Now take the battery out of the package and, with two pieces of wire, connect a flashlight bulb to the battery. We know that the bulb will light. Here is what is happening: electrons flow out of the negative pole of the battery (the zinc side), through the wire and bulb, causing it to light, and back to the positive pole (graphite) of the battery. Inside the battery, the zinc metal at the surface has become positively charged zinc ions (zinc atoms from which one or more electrons have been removed) and they dissolve and start traveling through the electrolyte glop and meet up with their electrons once again at the graphite rod and become metallic zinc once again, depositing on the carbon. There is a balance here that allows current to flow: the wire connection provides a path for the electrons, the salty glop provides a route for the positively charged zinc ions.
Note what was required for the battery to function: the two different materials for the two electrodes (zinc and graphite), an electrical path (the wiring) and an ionic path (the salty glop). You cand also make a battery using aluminum for the negative pole, stainless steel for the positive pole, rainwater contaminated with road salt as the electrolyte through which ions can travel, and a physical connection between the aluminum and stainless for the electrons to travel. If you have all of those conditions you have a battery or a 'galvanic corrosion cell'.
If you can keep the aluminum from touching the stainless, as Tim C suggested, you have no path for the electrons and the corrosion stops, similarly to removing the wires from the battery. If you can keep the area totally dry and absolutely free of salt, you have no ionic path and the corrosion stops. But what usually happens with the stainless rivets in aluminum is you have everything you need for the aluminum to corrode away into the salt water as ions.