Abstract
The effect of electroless nickel coating on the interfacial shear strengths of silicon continuous fiber reinforced AA 7075 aluminum matrix composite (SiC 1 /7071Al) was investigated using a push-out method with tungsten carbide (WC) cone indenter. During indentation, no rupture of fibers was observed. This showed that the push-out test can measure the interfacial shear strength of SiC 1 /7075Al precisely. The 160 MPa interfacial shear strength of the specimen without coating decreases to 120 MPa for the specimen with 0.5 μm nickel coating, even to MPa with 0.8 μm nickel coating, and then slightly increases with increasing coating film thickness. Nickel film reacted with aluminum matrix to form porous nickel aluminide intermetallic compounds during processing and to lower the interfacial shear strength.