The importance of wear and corrosion on the fretting fatigue behavior of two aluminum alloys

Research in the Quality and Integrity Design Engineering Center of the University of Utah was conducted to determine the relative importance of wear and corrosion (oxidation) failure mechanisms on the fretting fatigue behavior of 8090-T7 and 7075-T7351 aluminum alloy specimens. Specimens were tested either in laboratory air or in the vacuum chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The fretting fatigue process in the SEM vacuum was assumed to be relatively more wear and less corrosion dependent than the process in air. Under the test conditions it was found that the wear mechanism dominates for the 8090 alloy, but that the corrosion mechanism appears to dominate for the 7075 alloy.