archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438

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Original Research Article

Investigations on microstructure, mechanical, and

tribological behaviour of AA 7075–x wt.% TiC
composites for aerospace applications

K.R. Ramkumar a, S. Sivasankaran b,*, Fahad A. Al-Mufadi b, S. Siddharth c,

R. Raghu d
a
Centre of Excellence in Corrosion and Surface Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil
Nadu, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Buraidah 51452, Saudi Arabia
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
Amrita University, India
d
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

article info abstract

Article history: This research work was dedicated to prepare AA 7075/(0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5 wt.%) TiC metal matrix
Received 2 June 2018 composites through stir casting route. The manufactured composites were effectively
Accepted 4 December 2018 characterized using various techniques such as X-ray diffraction, and advanced electron
Available online microscopes. The mechanical properties by the flexural strength and hardness results had
performed and investigated elaborately. Further, the tribological properties in terms of the
Keywords: wear resistance and the coefficient of friction was also done and demonstrated clearly. The
AA 7075 Al alloy dispersion of TiC ceramic particles and its embedding over the ductile Al 7075 matrix was
Metal matrix composite successfully obtained which exhibited excellent mechanical and surface behaviour with the
Characterization function of TiC particles when compared to monolithic Al 7075 alloy. These results were due
Mechanical properties to the particulate strengthening of hard TiC ceramic particle over the soft ductile phase. In
Wear addition, X-ray diffraction results ensured the manufacturing of Al 7075-x wt.% TiC metal
matrix composites successfully and no other inter-metallic phases were observed.
© 2018 Politechnika Wrocławska. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

particles are usually having the higher value of hardness,

1. Introduction
The growing demand for novel lightweight materials with
higher strength and toughness has led to the development of
composite materials [1]. It is well known that the hard ceramic
Young's modulus value, and excellent creep resistance.
However, the brittleness is the major flaw of ceramic particles,
which is being restricted for the applications of structural and
aerospace parts [2]. However, the ductile metallic phases are
usually having more value of toughness; but these ductile

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: get2raam@gmail.com (K.R. Ramkumar), sivasankarangs1979@gmail.com, sivasankaran@qec.edu.sa (S. Sivasankaran),
almufadi@qec.edu.sa (F.A. Al-Mufadi), siddharth.sreeram@gmail.com
(S. Siddharth), raghu.r@srec.ac.in (R. Raghu).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acme.2018.12.003
1644-9665/© 2018 Politechnika Wrocławska. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438 429

Fig. 1 – (a) Schematic of stir casting of AA 7075–TiC composite preparation and (b) photograph of stir casting furnace.

metallic phases have possessed the lower value of strength [3].

Table 1 – Chemical composition of AA 7075 alloy.
In order to improve and achieve both the strength and
toughness of ductile metallic phases, metal matrix composites Elements wt.%
(MMCs) are being used currently. MMCs are one kind of Si 0.2
engineering materials nowadays where hard ceramic particles Fe 0.23
are dispersed with ductile metals [4]. Among various kinds of Cu 1.71
MMCs, aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) are frequently Mg 2.46
Zn 5.29
used in most of the automotive and aerospace industries as it
Ti 0.54
has the lower value of density, and possesses excellent
Cr 2.21
castability [5]. Further, these AMCs have more attractive in Al Bal.
high strength-to-weight ratio, high stiffness-to-weight ratio,
high wear resistance, less cost, easily available one, more in
thermal conductivity, good in thermal stability, and so on [6– mechanical, and wear properties of AA7075/TiC composites
8]. Several researchers have focused on and studied the Al- through stir casting technique. The composites had reinforced
based MMCs reinforced with Al2O3, SiC, B4C, TiB2, ZrB2, and 0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5 wt% TiC. The microstructure of the composites
TiO2 [9–13]. Among the various second phase particles, TiC characterized by X-ray diffraction and several electron micro-
ceramic particles are having the lower value of density, more scopes by which the mechanical and were behaviour with the
in strength, excellent wettability with molten Al alloys, and function of the reinforcement particles were investigated and
poor in chemical reactivity with the matrix [14–16]. Further, AA reported.
7075 alloy has the characteristics of easy to manufacture, good
abrasive resistance, excellent corrosion, good in wear resis-
2. Experimental procedure
tance, higher in strength, and heat treatable alloy. Some of the
applications of AA 7075 Al alloy are ships and submarines,
aircraft and space crafts, trucks and rail vehicles, automobiles This work encompasses the manufacturing of Al 7075–x wt.%
and prosthetic device. Several manufacturing routes are there TiC composites (x = 0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5 wt.%) by stir casting
to manufacture the MMCs in which the stir casting process is method (Fig. 1). The chemical composition of AA 7075 matrix
preferred due to its simplicity, mass production, low cost, ease alloy is illustrated in Table 1. In this technique, the Al 7075
of applicability and flexibility [6,7]. However, there is no much initially kept in a crucible furnace; heated to a temperature of
research work related to AA 7075 alloy reinforced with 800 8C. Simultaneously the ceramic particles of TiC preheated
titanium carbide (TiC) ceramic particles. In this investigation, to a temperature of 200 8C in a pre-heater which is available
an attempt was made to study the synthesis, characterization, with the furnace. The properties of TiC are given in Table 2,

Table 2 – Properties of titanium carbide particles (TiC).

Density Melting Vickers Elastic Thermal Crystal
(g/cm3) point (8C) hardness (GPa) modulus (GPa) conductivity (w/m/k) structure
4.93 3067 24–32 400 17–32 Cubic
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Table 3 – The sample composition, weighing of AA 7075

matrix and TiC particles.
% Al (7075) alloy (kg) TiC (g)
0 1 0
2.5 1 25
5 1 50
7.5 1 75

which was supplied by Loba Chemie, India. Meanwhile, the Al

7075 alloy had attained its liquid state and the stirring motor
was switched on. The stir casting set-up consisted of a blade,
which was made of austenitic stainless steel. The speed of the
stirrer was limited to 300 rpm. After reaching the vortex in the
molten metal, the preheated TiC ceramic particles had mixed
evenly. During mixing, the stirrer had started to rotate at a
constant speed. Then the mixed molten metal under vortex
condition was kept out for sometime (10 min) at high
temperature to have the uniform dispersion of the reinforce-
ment with the matrix. Prior to mixing the TiC particles, the slag
was removed from the molten matrix, which floated above the
melt. The preheated ceramic TiC particles were then added to
the molten matrix by weight fraction starting from 2.5 wt.% to
7.5 wt.% with the step size of 2.5. The reinforcement weight
fraction was restricted to 7.5 wt.% in the present work to retain
considerable ductility with strength and to maintain the
fluidity of the composite melt. Finally, the molten metal was
poured in the circular permanent metallic die of the size of
30 mm diameter and 250 mm length. The various sample
composition, the addition of matrix AA 7075 alloy in the
furnace and the TiC ceramic particles in mass basis are given
in Table 3. Fig. 1(a) shows the schematic of stir casting process
used to manufacture the AA 7075–TiC composites. Fig. 1(b)
shows the photograph of bottom pouring stir casting furnace
used in the present research work. Further, the time steps
involved in the manufacturing of AA 7075 alloy, and AA 7075–
TiC composites were illustrated as a schematic in Fig. 2.
The standard metallographic procedure was used to
characterize the manufactured ex situ MMCs samples. The
small specimen size of around 10 mm diameter with 10 mm
height was cold mounted using acrylic resin, polished with
different SiC grit papers, disc polished with 9 mm alumina, and
lapped using 1 mm diamond suspension. Then, the samples
Fig. 3 – X-ray diffraction peak obtained on AA 7075–x wt.%
TiC (x = 0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5) ex situ composites.
were chemically micro-etched using Keller's reagent (95 ml
distilled water, 2.5 ml HNO3, 1.5 ml HCl, and 1.0 ml HF). The
scanning electron microscope of JEOL JSM6390, and the
transmission electron microscope (TEM) of JEOL JEM2100 were
used for effective characterization. The electron backscattered
diffraction (EBSD) of FEI Quanta FEG SEM equipped with TSL-
OIM software was also performed to show the grain refine-
ment occurred in AA 7075 matrix alloy by incorporating the TiC
particles. The X-ray diffraction machine of Shimadzu XRD6000
was used to have X-ray diffraction patterns using CuKa
radiation, which was operated at 30 mA and 40 kV. During X-
ray diffraction, 20–808 scanning range with the scanning rate of
28/min was used. The flexural strength was obtained by
conducting a three-point bending test. The flexural test was
conducted with 1 mm/min crosshead movement. The hard-
ness was recorded using a Rockwell hardness tester at 150 kgf
load of dwell time 20 s.
The dry sliding wear tests were conducted using the
standard Tribo Meter supplied by M/s. Ducom, Bangalore,
India. Before the wear test, the samples with the dimensions of
10 mm in diameter with the height of 15 mm were prepared
using the wire-cut electrical discharge machine (WEDM) and

Fig. 2 – Schematic of time steps involved during manufacturing of AA 7075 alloy and AA 7075 + wt.% TiC composites.
 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438
then the samples were washed in acetone. The counterpart
disc made of high carbon high chromium steel with the outer
diameter of 70 mm with 10 mm thickness was used. The input
parameters used were: the load of 40 N, the sliding velocity of
1.5 m/s, the sliding distance of 500 m, and the disc speed of
240 m. The wear test was conducted at room temperature and
the wear rate was calculated by weight loss basis which was
measured using the digital weighing balance of Sartorius
CP423S with 1 mg precision. Finally, the SEM investigation was
carried out on the worn samples to examine the various wear
mechanism and worn surface morphology.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. XRD of AA7075/TiC AMCs
Fig. 3 shows the X-ray diffraction pattern obtained for AA 7075
(JCPDS reference number 98-008-4180) alloy reinforced with
different weight percentage of TiC (JCPDS reference number 96-
901-2565) ex situ particles (0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5 wt.%). It was
observed that the intensity of peak corresponding to cubic TiC
phase had started to increase with the increase of weight
percentage of TiC particles in the AMCs and simultaneously the
matrix peak (a-Al) had started to decrease [17]. Further, it was
noticed that the peak position of a-Al was incoherent which
Fig. 4 – SEM images of Al 7075–composites of (a) Al 7075–0 wt.% TiC, (b) Al 7075–2.5 wt.% TiC, (c) Al 7075–5 wt.% TiC, (d) Al
7075–7.5 wt.% TiC composite and (e) EDX of (d).
431
was expected to the distortion of a-Al lattice produced by the
incorporation of TiC ceramic particles. The manufactured
composites (all samples) exhibited well crystalline peaks and
no other intermetallic phases were observed in XRD pattern,
which demonstrated explicitly that there was no impurity.
Further, these results had explained that there was no reaction
between the a-Al matrix and cubic TiC phases [18,19].
3.2. Microstructures of AA7075/TiC AMCs
Fig. 4 shows the SEM images of AA 7075 reinforced with the
different weight percentage of TiC particles in which the a-Al
phase and the second phase particles were clearly seen. Some
casting defects, namely, the porosity, the scratches, and the
asperities were also observed in the unreinforced monolithic
alloy (Fig. 4(a), [20]). However, the intentionally added
reinforcements particles were distributed uniformly/homo-
geneously over the matrix (Fig. 4(b)–(d)). These homogeneous
distributions of TiC particles are necessary to enhance the
mechanical properties of materials. Further, Fig. 4(b)–(d) had
clearly shown the proper interface between the TiC particles
and the a-Al matrix which had indicated the good bonding of
second phase particles in the matrix. This could be expected to
enhance the load bearing capacity of a-Al matrix. In addition,
the observed clear interface between the TiC particles and a-Al
matrix could be expected to increase the thermal stability. In
432 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438
Fig. 5 – TEM micrographs of Al 7075–7.5% TiC composites: (a), (b) particulates and (c), (d) dislocation density.
general, the undesirable intermetallic compounds would form
if there is no proper interface between the ceramic particles
and matrix which lead to having the thermodynamically
unstable ceramic particles in the liquid matrix melt [21]. The
energy dispersive diffraction (EDAX) pattern for AA 7075–
7.5 wt.% TiC was also shown in Fig. 4(e) which confirmed the
presence of both a-Al and TiC particles and no intermetallic
compounds [17,19].
However, the proper interface between the ceramic particles
and matrix phase with the good bonding of TiC particles in the
matrix was achieved in the present research work. In order to
confirm the proper interface between TiC and a-Al matrix, TEM
investigation on AA 7075–7.5 TiC AMC was carried out which is
shown in Fig. 5. The TEM images of Fig. 5 revealed the TiC particle
morphology, dislocations and interfacial properties in a-Al
matrix phase. The measured TiC particle size was around
250 nm (ultra-fine level) which was calculated from the average
of 125 TiC particles obtained from several TEM images. Further,
proper interfacial characteristics could be observed clearly based
on Fig. 5(a) and (b). In addition, there was no reaction layer
around the TiC particles due to which the TiC particles could not
able to change its shape from around spherical shape to needle-
like shape. These results confirmed that the TiC particles had
attained the stability during high-temperature casting processes.
Moreover, more amounts of dislocations were also observed
(Fig. 5(c) and (d)) which was due to the difference in the value of
the coefficient of thermal expansion between the matrix phase
and TiC ceramic particles. In general, the a-Al matrix would
expand and contract at a faster rate when compared to the TiC
ceramic particles which were due to differences in the value of
the coefficient of thermal expansion. Due to this, a considerable
amount of dislocations had formed after solidification which
produced more amount of strain fields [22].
Fig. 6 shows the grain size map obtained from EBSD for AA
7075 alloy reinforced with different weight percentage of TiC
composites. Based on the grain size colour orientation map,
it was very clear that the AA 7075 matrix grains were refined
with the function of TiC ceramic particles. In general, the
presence of strain fields with more amounts of dislocations
is the major benefits to enhance the mechanical properties
which could be achieved by the grain refinement process.
Based on EBSD colour map, the grain size of a-Al matrix was
determined and the grain size variation with the function of
TiC particles is shown in Fig. 7. The observed average grain
size of a-Al matrix had started to decrease by incorporating
the TiC particles due to the pinning effect of TiC particles in
the matrix [23–25]. The calculated average grain size of AA
7075 alloy, AA 7075–2.5 wt.% TiC, AA 7075–5.0 wt.% TiC, and
AA 7075–7.5 wt.% TiC AMCs were 155
4 mm, 121
3, 89

4.5 and 65
2.5 mm, respectively (Fig. 7). Further, the
crystallographic characteristics in terms of grain boundaries
orientation angles, namely, low angle grain boundary
(LAGBs, 0–158), high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs, >158)
can also be used to examine the behaviour of materials. Fig. 8
shows the grain boundaries representations, misorientation
angle, and the corresponding pole figure for AA 7075 alloy
and AA 7075 reinforced with 7.5 wt.% TiC composite. In Fig. 8
(a) and (d), the red colour grain boundaries were indicated
the angle from 08 to 58, the green colour grain boundaries
were indicated the angle from 58 to 158, and the blue colour
grain boundaries were indicated the angle of more than 158.
From Fig. 8, it was very clear that the AA 7075–7.5 wt.% TiC
composites was produced more HAGBs (78.8%) whereas the
AA 7075 alloy was exhibited the HAGBs of 41.8% only. These
results explained that more grain refinement was occurred
in the composite. This grain refinement was expected to
make the changes in the solidification of matrix melt with
the function of TiC particles. The introduction of TiC
particles in a-Al matrix would lead to diminishing the a-
Al grain growth [23,24]. This diminishing rate of grain grow
 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438
Fig. 6 – Grain size colour orientation map obtained by EBSD for (a) AA 7075 alloy, (b) AA 7075–2.5 wt.% TiC, (c) AA 7075–5 wt.%
TiC and (d) AA 7075–7.5 wt.% TiC.
had started to increase with the percentage of TiC particles
which was the main reason to have a fine grain a-Al matrix at
the higher amount of TiC particulate composite.
3.3. Mechanical properties of AA7075/TiC AMCs
The mechanical behaviour in terms of Rockwell hardness and
bending stress for the manufactured AA 7075/TiC AMCs are
shown in Figs. 7 and 9, respectively. The measured average
hardness of around 109 HRC was obtained in 0 wt.%
monolithic alloy whereas around 248 HRC was obtained in
7.5 wt.% TiC reinforced composite. The improved hardness of
around 2.3 times was obtained in the higher reinforced
composite. This huge enhancement in hardness value was
due to the presence of more dislocations, grain refinement,
and effective bonding between a-Al matrix and TiC particles
(Figs. 4–6 and 8). The induced bending stress (sb) of each
specimen from the three-point bending test was determined
using the formula [26]:
433
3WL2
sb ¼ (1)
2bt2
where W is the applied flexural load in 'N', L the span of the two
support in 'mm', b the width of the specimen in 'mm', and t is
the thickness of the specimen in 'mm'. Further, the corre-
sponding induced bending strain (eb) on the tested sample was
also calculated using:
dt
eb ¼ (2)
L2
where d is the deflection measured in 'mm' at the centre of the
specimen. The variation of bending stress and bending strain
curves of AA7075/TiC composites are shown in Fig. 9. The
observed bending stress had started to increase with the
function of the percentage of TiC particles steadily. This
was attributed to the presence of hard TiC ceramic particles,
its uniform distribution, grain refinement, and proper embed-
ding of TiC particles with a-Al matrix (Figs. 4–6 and 8) [14].
434 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438

Fig. 7 – Effect of TiC content on the average grain size (mm) and the Rockwell hardness number (HRC) of Al 7075–x wt.% TiC
composites (x = 0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 wt.%).

Fig. 8 – EBSD results of AA 7075 alloy: (a) LAGBs and HAGBs representation, (b) misorientation angle and (c) pole figure; EBSD
results of AA 7075–7.5 wt.% TiC composite: (d) LAGBs and HAGBs representation, (e) misorientation angle and (f) pole figure.

Based on the rule of mixture, the presence of hard TiC particle
would impart hard nature in the composites and hence the
AMCs possessed more bending stress. Further, the effective
interfacial bonds (Fig. 4) between the a-Al matrix and TiC
ceramic particles, and the grain refinement occurred in the
matrix (Fig. 6) had expected to assist the effective load carrying
capacity of the matrix. In addition, the incorporation and
getting of uniform distribution of TiC particles (Fig. 4) in the
matrix would enhance the strength in the composites due to
Orowan strengthening mechanism. Moreover, the associated
 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438
Fig. 9 – Bending stress–strain curves of Al 7075–x wt.% TiC
composites (x = 0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 wt.%).
strain fields with the function of TiC particles (Fig. 5(b) and (c))
in a-Al matrix had promoted more strength and hence the
mechanical properties had improved in the present research
work. Baradeswaran and Elaya Perumal [27] had achieved the
improved bending strength of 435 MPa for AA 7075 alloy rein-
forced with Al2O3 and Gr hybrid composite.
The fractured surfaces after bending under SEM images are
shown in Fig. 10. From Fig. 10(a), it was clearly observed that
lower amount of dimples, the large size of cleavage fracture
Fig. 10 – Fracture surface morphology of SEM images of Al 7075–composites of (a) Al 7075–0 wt.% TiC, (b) Al 7075–2.5 wt.% TiC,
(c) Al 7075–5 wt.% TiC and (d) Al 7075–7.5 wt.% TiC composite.
435
surfaces and more amounts of porosities due to shrinkages
was observed in unreinforced AA 7075 alloy. However, the
observed size of voids near the TiC particles had started to
decrease with the function of reinforcement which indicated
the achievement of good bonding that might have expected to
decrease the shrinkages. The decrease in the size of void or
dimples had expected to grain refinement engendered by the
TiC particles in the matrix. Further, there were no voids around
the TiC particles which also confirmed the effective bonding in
the composites. In addition, the observed flattened fracture
surfaces with the function of TiC particles had again indicated
the effective bonding occurrence [28].
3.4. Dry sliding wear behaviour of AA7075/TiC AMCs
The variation of wear rate, wear resistance and the coefficient
of friction of AA 7075 alloy reinforced with the different weight
percentage of TiC particles is shown in Fig. 11. From Fig. 11(a), it
was observed that the wear rate had started to decrease with
the increase of the hard TiC ceramic particles in the a-Al
matrix. These results were attributed to the improvement of
hardness, outstanding interfacial bonding between the matrix
and ceramic particles, embedding of hard TiC particles, and
grain refinement in the structure [25,29]. The increase in wear
resistance with the incorporation of TiC second phase
particles in a-Al matrix is also shown in Fig. 11(a). The
addition of TiC particles in the matrix was expected to have a
homogeneous cast structure that might have reduced the
isolation of matrix. Further, the differences in the value of the
436 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438

Fig. 11 – Wear behaviour of Al 7075–x wt.% TiC (x = 0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5) composites: (a) variation of wear rate, and wear resistance
and (b) variation of coefficient of friction.

Fig. 12 – Worn surface morphology SEM images of Al 7075–composites of (a) Al 7075–0 wt.% TiC, (b) Al 7075–2.5 wt.% TiC, (c) Al
7075–5 wt.% TiC, (d) Al 7075–7.5 wt.% TiC composite and (e) EDX of (d) showing the Fe elements present in the material.

coefficient of thermal expansion between the TiC particle and
a-Al matrix had expected to develop more amount of strain
fields consequently it led to enhance the dislocation density.
Due to this, the wear rate had started to decrease with the
function of TiC particles. The variation of coefficient of friction
with the function of TiC particle is also shown in Fig. 11(b) in
which the value of the coefficient of friction had started to
decrease considerably when the amount of TiC particles
increased. The unreinforced monolithic AA 7075 alloy had
possessed more value of the coefficient of friction and hence, it
had the lower value of wear resistance (Fig. 11(a)). The severe
wear occurred in unreinforced alloy was attributed to the
presence of coarse grain matrix which had poor resistance
against deformation. However, the observed coefficient of
friction value had started to decrease with the incorporation of
TiC particles (Fig. 11(b)) which was due to more in strength,
uniform distribution of TiC particles, grain refinement, well
bonding, and embedding of TiC particles (Figs. 4–6 and 8). In
general, the a-Al matrix embedded with hard TiC particles
would offer more resistance against wear as the hard TiC
 archives of civil and mechanical engineering 19 (2019) 428–438
particle would never allow the matrix to shear deformation.
Due to this, it was expected that the contact had occurred
between the reinforcement particles and the steel counterface
in which the hard TiC particle would act as third body abrasion
[27,30]. This could minimize the coefficient of friction and
hence, the coefficient of friction had started to decrease with
the function of TiC particles (Fig. 11(b)).
The worn surface morphology observed from SEM of AA
7075–x wt.% TiC (x = 0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5) AMCs is shown in Figs. 12
(a)–(d). The abrasion and delamination mechanisms are the
common two wear mechanisms which would occur during the
sliding wear test [23,24]. From Fig. 12(a) and (b), it was
obviously explained that severe delamination, more grooves,
rigorous surface failure, matrix peeling, more scratches, and
more ploughing had occurred in AA 7075 monolithic alloy and
AA 7075–2.5 wt.% TiC AMCs. Further, the adhesive wear
mechanism was expected to be the dominant one as these
samples was poor in strength and lower value of hardness.
Some wear debris with white particles was also observed
which was expected to oxidization. The formed debris was
attributed to poor in adhesive. However, fewer defects had
observed in AA 7075–5 wt.% TiC AMCs and AA 7075–7.5 wt.%
TiC AMCs. Further, wear tracks with good tribo-film had also
observed in these AMCs (5 and 7.5 wt.% TiC) samples. Due to
this, the value of the coefficient of friction had started to
decrease with the function of reinforcement consequently the
good tribo film could decrease the adhesive wear. In addition,
the higher reinforced sample had exhibited less wear track,
fewer damages, and no oxidization layer. This was expected to
possess higher amount of resistances, uniform distribution of
reinforcements, more in strength, and effective interfacial
strength between TiC particles [31] and a-Al matrix. Based on
these results, it could be concluded that admirable improved
tribological properties could be achieved in the manufactured
AMCs and hence, the parts made of these materials are
expected to run in long life which is the major expectations in
the aerospace industries.
4. Conclusion
The influence of TiC particles added to the Al 7075 alloy, the
microstructural characterizations, mechanical properties, and
wear behaviour were investigated and reported. Based on the
results, the following conclusions are drawn from this study:
 Altered TiC wt.% of reinforcement particles had successfully
incorporated into the matrix through stir casting technique.
 Consecutively, the produced composites had the uniform
distribution of second phase particles (TiC) in the Al alloy.
 The grain size measured by EBSD map for AA 7075 alloy and
AA 7075 + 7.5 wt.% TiC ex situ composite were achieved
155 mm and 65 mm, respectively which explained clearly the
grain refinement occurred by incorporating the TiC particles.
 With the addition of ceramic content, the bending strength
of AA 7075–7.5 wt.% TiC composites had significantly
increased by 5.8 times when compared to monolithic AA
7075 alloy which attributed to the grain refinement, uniform
distribution, embedding of reinforcement particles with the
matrix.
437
 The absence of voids, cracks and other defects near the
matrix and reinforcement interface provided the way for the
occurrence of effective load transfer from Al 7075 matrix to
TiC reinforcement, which results in the enhancement of
flexural strength.
 The increasing of reinforcement in the matrix had exhibited
improved wear resistance due to increase in strength in the
matrix, dispersion strengthening, and effective bonding.
Data availability statement
The experimental datasets obtained from this research work
and then the analyzed results during the current study are
available from the corresponding author on reasonable
request.
Authors' contributions
Dr. S. Sivasankaran has framed the idea of this work and
designed the experiments. Mr. K.R. Ramkumar and Mr. S.
Siddharth have carried out the experimental part of this work.
Mr. R. Raghu has done the characterization studies using SEM
and TEM. Dr. Fahad Al-Mufadi has contributed to materials
and tools. Dr. S. Sivasankaran has written this paper and
finally Dr. Fahad Al-Mufadi has fine tuned the article.
Acknowledgments
On behalf of all teamwork of this research, the corresponding
author wishes to thank the Qassim University for all the
funding and support required to carry out this research.
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