Comprehensive analysis of mechanical properties, wear, and corrosion behavior of AA7075-T6 alloy subjected to cryogenic treatment for aviation and defense applications

It is important that the parts to be used in the aviation and defense industry have high wear, fatigue and corrosion resistance. AA7075-T6 alloys are increasingly used in every field due to their advantageous physical and mechanical properties. However, some of the materials of this alloy types exhibit excellent fatigue strength and ductility, but their surface hardness and surface roughness after processing may be poor. For this reason, the wear resistance of AA7075-T6 aluminum alloy expected to be improved in order to increase their corrosion resistance properties. In this work, cryogenic treatment was applied to AA7075-T6 alloy and the mechanical characteristics, wear and corrosion behaviors of these samples were examined. As a result of the experiments, it was determined that cryogenic treatment improved the wear behavior of AA7075-T6 alloy. The untreated sample was found to have the highest wear rate, whereas the sample with deep cryogenic treatment (DCT) had the lowest wear rate. The hardness of the DCT process increased by 5.79 %, according to macro hardness measurements, making the AA7075-T6 alloy harder from 80.16 HRB to 84.8. The SEM images revealed that, the shallow cryogenic and deep cryogenic operations had substantial effects on the microstructure by modifying the size and distribution of precipitates in the AA7075-T6 alloy. In addition, tensile and hardness tests were carried out to assess the mechanical characteristics of the samples. Accordingly, the maximum tensile strength and hardness values were obtained in the deep cryogenically treated sample. The tensile strength of the DCT sample was approximately 544.18 MPa, a considerable 11.5 % increase above the untreated sample's 488.07 MPa strength. In potentiodynamic polarization testing, the DCT treated sample was determined to have the maximum corrosion resistance. Among the materials tested, the DCT sample showed the strongest corrosion resistance, with a corrosion potential of -0.689 V and a corrosion rate of 0.021 mm/year. Wear rate analysis revealed that DCT samples experienced the least material loss, demonstrating improved abrasion resistance. Enhanced hardness and the formation of stable oxide tribo-layers contributed to these superior wear characteristic.