Abstract
7075Al/B4C composites have been designed and developed since they have greater potential to be used in various industries especially in aerospace firms. In general the mechanical properties of the precipitation strengthening enabled Aluminum alloys are executed by means of artificial aging leading to precipitation strengthening. This work aims at a detailed analysis of the influence of artificial aging heat treatment on the degradation pattern especially corrosion behavior of 7075Al/B4C composites in Red Sea environment. Stir casting methodology is used to manufacture the composite using 7075 Aluminum alloy and 15 wt% B4C particulates. Brinell hardness measurements were carried out further to find the hardness of artificially aged group of composites. The hardness profile is used to categorize the aged composites into under aged (UA), over aged (OA) and peak aged (PA). These groups are further tested in potentiodynamic polarization studies using AUTO LAB corrosion measuring instrument. The topographical responds of the composite specimens exposed to Red Sea Water, is studied using SEM, EDAX and XRD. It is registered that the peak aged composites show higher tendency to corrode in Red Sea Water in comparison with other categorize of artificially aged composites. The SEM micrographs reveal that the interface between the matrix and the reinforcements corrode along with the intermetallic precipitates. Ceria conversion coating observed to improvise the corrosion resistance characteristics of the composite to a greater level.