Modelling of the porous anodizing of aluminium: Generation of experimental input data and optimization of the considered model

The current paper considers the interdependency between the current density, the anodic overpotential and the temperature during the porous anodizing of aluminium in a sulphuric acid electrolyte. In contrast to common anodizing experiments, a sequence of increasing current densities is applied to each electrode. As demonstrated, this anodizing approach allows evaluating stationary anodic potentials up to very high current densities without being confronted with anomalous oxide growth. Additionally, anodizing is performed at controlled electrolyte and electrode temperature. Due to its large influence on the electrochemical behaviour, the control of the electrode temperature is important when studying the temperature dependency of the process. Based on the experimental evolutions a macroscopic model is presented, describing the relation between the considered general process parameters. It is demonstrated that a relatively simple expression is capable of well describing the experimental data in the extensive range of temperatures and current densities.