Fatigue and corrosion fatigue behavior of an AA6063-T6 aluminum alloy coated with a WC–10Co–4Cr alloy deposited by HVOF thermal spraying

The present investigation has been conducted in order to study the fatigue and corrosion fatigue behavior of an AA6063-T6 aluminum alloy substrate coated with a WC–10Co–4Cr deposited by HVOF thermal spraying. It has been determined that the deposition of such a coating on the aluminum substrate gives rise to significant gains in fatigue life in comparison with the uncoated substrate, when testing is carried out both in air and in a 3 wt.% NaCl solution. It has been shown that during testing in air, the fatigue gain ranges between ~ 540 and 4300%, depending on the maximum alternating stress applied to the material. Larger fatigue gains are associated with low alternating stresses. Also, when fatigue testing is conducted in the NaCl solution, the gain in fatigue resistance varies between ~ 620 and 1460%. Fatigue cracks have been observed to initiate at the coating surface and then grow towards the substrate after propagating through the entire coating thickness. Crack growth along the coating has been observed to occur mainly along the regions formed by the agglomeration of W and W–Co–Cr-rich particles, flanking the tougher Co–Cr-rich areas. Although in the present work residual stresses were not measured, it is believed that the gain in fatigue life of the coating–substrate system is due to the presence of compressive residual stresses within the coating which hinder fatigue crack propagation. The deposition of the coating does not give rise to significant changes in the static mechanical properties and hardness of the aluminum alloy substrate. It has been observed that the WC–10Co–4Cr coating displays a significant indentation size effect and has a mean hardness of ~ 9.4 GPa.