Wear Behavior of Aluminum/Aluminum-Silicon Composite Coatings Prepared by Cold Spraying

Composite coatings containing aluminum and aluminum-11.6wt% silicon eutectic alloy phases of five varying compositions were fabricated using cold spraying. Coating contained a uniform distribution of the two phases. The hardness of the coatings increased as the volume fraction of Al-Si in the coating increased. Reciprocating sliding wear tests indicated that pure Al coating had the lowest wear resistance and the pure Al-Si coating had the highest wear resistance. The wear resistance of the composite coatings decreased with the increase in Al-Si content indicating a mechanism dominated by delamination and interface failure.