Topographical responses of defense grade 7075 Al/TiO2 composite in Red sea environment

Abstract

7075 Al/TiO2 composite is one among the promising materials with tailor made properties for structural applications in defense industry. In order to achieve superior mechanical properties, these composites are subjected to aging treatment which in turn give rise to an adverse effect on the degradation behaviour of the composite in aggressive environments. One of the major concerns in defense applications is the corrosion related problems. Hence this work concentrates on the investigation of the corrosion behaviour of the artificially aged composite using potentiodynamic polarization and gravimetric analysis. Both techniques show a similar trend in corrosion behaviour of the composite in Red sea environment. Artificial aging treatment (T6) is carried out prior to the corrosion tests. Based on the hardness variations, the composite specimens were classified into three categories namely peak aged, under aged and over aged. Among the three groups of specimens, the peak aged composite exhibits higher degradation behavior in Red sea water when compared to that of under aged and over aged composite specimens.