Aging precipitation behavior and properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr-Er alloy at different quenching rates

The effect of quenching rate on the aging precipitation behavior and properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr-Er alloy was investigated.The scanning electron microscopy,transmission electron microscopy,and atom probe tomography were used to study the characteristics of clusters and precipitates in the alloy.The quench-inducedηphase and a large number of clusters are formed in the air-cooled alloy with the slowest cooling rate,which contributes to an increment of hardness by 24%(HV 26)compared with that of the water-quenched one.However,the aging hardening response speed and peak-aged hardness of the alloy increase with the increase of quenching rate.Meanwhile,the water-quenched alloy after peak aging also has the highest strength,elongation,and corrosion resistance,which is due to the high driving force and increased number density of aging precipitates,and the narrowed precipitate free zones.

Improvement of strength and ductility of Al-Cu-Li alloy through cryogenic rolling followed by aging

To develop an improved approach in achieving an excellent combination of high strength and ductility,the solutionized Al?Cu?Li plates were subjected to rolling at cryogenic and room temperatures,respectively,to a reduction of83%,followed by aging treatment at160°C.The results indicate that Al?Cu?Li alloys through cryogenic rolling followed by aging treatment possess better mechanical properties.Rolling at cryogenic temperature produces a high density of dislocations because of the suppression of dynamic recovery,which in turn promotes the precipitation of T1(Al2CuLi)precipitates during aging.Such high density of T1precipitates enable effective dislocation pinning,leading to an increase in strength and ductility.In contrast,room temperature rolled alloys after aging treatment exhibit lower strength and ductility due to low density of T1precipitates in the grain interior and high density of T1precipitates around subgrain boundaries.

Simulation of low proportion of dynamic recrystallization in 7055 aluminum alloy

The hot deformation and dynamic recrystallization(DRX)behaviors of 7055 aluminum alloy were studied at temperatures of 390−470℃ and strain rates of 0.01−1 s^(−1).A low DRX fraction between 1% and 13% was observed by using EBSD technique.A modified JMAK-type DRX model was proposed for such low DRX fraction problems.The model was used together with commercial FEM software DEFORM-3D to simulate the hot compression of 7055 aluminum alloy.There was a good agreement between experimental and predicted DRX fractions and grain size with an average absolute relative error(AARE)of 13.7% and 6.3%,respectively.In order to further verify the validity of the proposed model,the model was also used to simulate DRX in industrial hot rolling of 7055 aluminum alloys.The results showed that the distribution of DRX fraction was inhomogeneous,and agreed with experimental observations.

Microstructure characterization of Al-cladded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu sheet in different hot deformation conditions

Al-cladded Al-Zn-Mg-Cu sheets were compressed up to70%reduction on a Gleeble-3500thermo-mechanical simulatorwith temperatures ranging from380to450°C at strain rates between0.1and30s-1.The microstructures of the Al cladding and theAl-Zn-Mg-Cu matrix were characterized by electron back-scattered diffraction(EBSD)and X-ray diffraction(XRD).Themicrostructure is closely related to the level of recovery and recrystallization,which can be influenced by deformation temperature,deformation pass and deformation rate.The level of recovery and recrystallization are different in the Al cladding and theAl-Zn-Mg-Cu matrix.Higher deformation temperature results in higher degree of recrystallization and coarser grain size.Staticrecrystallization and recovery can happen during the interval of deformation passes.Higher strain rate leads to finer sub-grains atstrain rate below10s-1;however,dynamic recovery and recrystallization are limited at strain rate of30s-1due to shorter duration atelevated temperatures.

Tailoring phase fractions of T'and η' phases in dual-phase strengthened Al−Zn−Mg−Cu alloy via ageing treatment

Hardness tests and transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the strategy of tailoring the phase fraction of precipitates in an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy strengthened by T’ and η’ phases. Different phase fractions of T’ and η’ phases are presented in samples subjected to either single or two stages of ageing treatments at 120 and 150 ℃.For both types of ageing, the precipitation of η’ phase is found to be promoted by ageing at lower temperature and its phase fraction increases with prolonging ageing time at 120 ℃;whereas the phase fractions of T’ and η’ phases almost remain constant during ageing at 150 ℃. Besides, the strain fields produced by T’ and η’ phases were analyzed by using the geometric phase analysis technique, and on a macroscale the contributions of T’ and η’ phases to precipitation strengthening have been quantitatively predicted by combining the size, phase fraction and number density of precipitates.