Wear Behaviour of AA7075 based Composites: A State of the Art Survey

Aluminium Alloy 7075, find its application in aviation, marine, defense, and automotive sectors due to its high specific strength and light weight. However, its use is limited owing to its low wear resistance and low hardness. Efforts are continuously being made to improve its mechanical and tribological properties by the inclusion of ceramic reinforcements in it. These reinforcements include SiC, TiC, Si3N4, Al2O3, TiB2, B4C, graphite, fly ash, multi-walled CNTs, etc. AA7075 composites proved to be the potential candidate for structural applications. This review paper presents an insight on the effect of process parameters such as weight percentage of reinforcements, normal load, sliding distance, and sliding speed on the wear behaviour of AA7075 based composites. Analysis of wear behaviour using various optimization techniques such as Taguchi methods, Grey Relational Analysis, etc. has also been discussed. Different wear mechanisms such as delamination, abrasion, adhesion, etc. are also being highlighted in the paper.