WEIGHT LOSS CORROSION STUDIES OF ALUMINIUM-7075 ALLOY REINFORCED WITH SILICON CARBIDE PARTICULATES COMPOSITES IN ACID CHLORIDE MEDIUM

The aim of the research work to investigate the corrosion behaviour of Silicon Carbide(SiC) reinforced aluminium 7075 metalmatrix composites (MMCs) in acid chloride solution using weight loss method. The composites are manufactured by liquid metallurgy technique using vortex method. Aluminium 7075 / SiC MMCs containing 2, 4 and 6 weight percentage of SiC particulates are casted. The corrosion characteristics of Aluminium 7075 /SiCcomposite and the unreinforced alloy were experimentally assessed. The corrosion test was carried out at different concentrations of 0.025M, 0.05M and 0.1 M solutions for different exposure time. The results indicated that corrosion rate of metal matrix composites was lower than that of matrix material Al 7075 under the corrosive atmosphere irrespective of exposure time and concentration of corrodent. Aluminium 7075 / SiC composite become more corrosion resistant as the SiC content is increased. This is because of the formation of stable oxide layer over the specimens.