The impact of zirconia nanoparticles on the mechanical characteristics of 7075 aluminum alloy

Abstract In numerous engineering applications, metal matrix composites strengthened by ceramic particles have played an important role. For this purpose, an aluminum (Al 7075) nanocomposite has been fabricated, and nano-zirconium oxide of particle size 40 nm (0, 0.8, 1.6, and 2.4) wt% reinforced Al 7075 alloy was produced using a stir-casting process. The effect of ZrO 2 NPs loading on mechanical properties along with the detailed characterization were demonstrated. The performance of Al with ZrO 2 nanocomposite was investigated by Vickers hardness tester, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray, compression test, Lee’s disc, and Shore D instruments were utilized to determine the hardness, structural morphology, composition of the elements, Young’s modulus, thermal conductivity, and roughness values of the samples, respectively. The hardness (120.3–177) HV, compression strength (624.2–878.6) MPa, yield modulus (38–70) MPa, surface roughness (0.876–0.606) µm, thermal conductivity (2.0–2.39) W/m 2  °C improved by increasing the wt% of ZrO 2 NP reinforcement particles. The implication of these findings shows that 5 wt% nano-ZrO 2 -reinforced Al 7075 composites yielded better performance than pure Al 7075 alloy. To sum up, this investigation demonstrated that the ZrO 2 reinforcement enhanced the mechanical properties of Al 7075.