A Short Review on the Mechanical, Tribological and Corrosion Behavior of the Aluminum Matrix Composites Reinforced with High-Entropy Alloys Fabricated by Friction Stir Processing

Aluminum alloys have found widespread applications in many industries, including transportation, aerospace, and marine industries, owing to their low density and excellent corrosion resistance. However, their relatively low hardness and poor tribological performance limited their durability under severe service conditions. Over the past decades, the improvement of their mechanical, tribological, and corrosion properties via the formation of composites has received great attention from researchers. Recently, high entropy alloys (HEAs) have been introduced as promising reinforcements for the aluminum matrix composites (AMCs) owing to their superior hardness, metal-metal compatibility, low coefficient of thermal expansion, and low tendency to form brittle intermetallic compounds through processing. Among the fabrication methods of AMCs, friction stir processing (FSP), as a solid-state sever plastic deformation (SPD) method, offers many advantages for the incorporation of the HEAs on the surfaces of the AMCs with microstructural refinements. In this short review study, first, microstructural evolution of the aluminum alloys through FSP is discussed, and then, the effects of the HEAs addition on the mechanical, tribological, and corrosion properties of the AMCs fabricated by FSP are discussed. In this work, the effects of the various parameters such as HEA contents, FSP pass number, rotation speed of the tool, and tool pin geometry on the properties of the AMCs reinforced with HEAs are discussed.