A Study on Surface Modification of Al7075-T6 Alloy against Fretting Fatigue Phenomenon

Abstract

Aircraft engines, fuselage, automobile parts, and energy saving strategies in general have promoted the interest and research in the field of lightweight materials, typically on alloys based on aluminum. Aluminum alloy itself does not have suitable wear resistance; therefore, it is necessary to enhance surface properties for practical applications, particularly when aluminum is in contact with other parts. Fretting fatigue phenomenon occurs when two surfaces are in contact with each other and one or both parts are subjected to cyclic load. Fretting drastically decreases the fatigue life of materials. Therefore, investigating the fretting fatigue life of materials is an important subject. Applying surface modification methods is anticipated to be a supreme solution to gradually decreasing fretting damage. In this paper, the authors would like to review methods employed so far to diminish the effect of fretting on the fatigue life of Al7075-T6 alloy. The methods include deep rolling, shot peening, laser shock peening, and thin film hard coatings. The surface coatings techniques are comprising physical vapor deposition (PVD), hard anodizing, ion-beam-enhanced deposition (IBED), and nitriding.

A Review on Fatigue Life Prediction Methods for Metals

“…Considering an industrial frame, the particular purpose of this work was the fatigue life prediction of components when changing machining parameters and processes, in order to avoid tests that could be expensive and time-consuming. Accounting for other methods present in literature [302][303][304][305][306][307][308][309] that usually consider the surface roughness as a notch effect in terms of stress, the theory developed by Suraratchai et al [299] modeled how the geometric surface condition affects the fatigue properties of structures. In this theory [299] the surface roughness is considered responsible for the generation of a local stress concentration, controlling the possible surface crack propagation or nonpropagation.…”

A Tracking Review on Non Arc Melting Processes for Improved Surface Properties in Metallic Materials

“…Finishing operations can be eliminated or held to a minimum. Nitriding is a thermo-chemical process generates pronounced improvements in the mechanical and chemical properties, as well as the fatigue endurance and the corrosion resistance of steels (Mohseni et al, 2014;Puntambekar, 2013). The process basically consists of nitrogen incorporation through the surface and its subsequent diffusion into the material bulk (Puntambekar, 2013;Zagonel et al, 2009).…”

Improving the fretting performance of aero-engine tenon joint materials using surface strengthening

“…In this method, nitrogen atoms are diffused into the material, inducing the formation of a surface-hardened layer in a certain medium at a certain temperature. The chemical treatment of metal materials, such as aluminium alloys and titanium alloys, may be carried out by plasma nitriding, ion nitriding or gas nitriding [14]. The formation of precipitates in the nitrogen atom diffusion layer caused by the nitriding treatment promotes the surface hardness of the metal material, thereby increasing the fretting fatigue life of the component [15].…”