Synergetic effect of natural ageing and pre-stretching on the ageing behavior in Tʹ/ηʹ phase-strengthened Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys

摘要

Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys with different major strengthening precipitates are subjected to a novel combinatorial pre-treatment,including natural ageing and pre-stretching.The evolution of hardness and microstructure during the combinatorial pre-treatment and subsequent artificial ageing has been investigated.The results reveal that the growth rate of hardness in alloy B(Zn/Mg=10.0)is much higher than that of alloy A(Zn/Mg=1.5)due to the fast precipitation kinetics ofηphase compared with T phase.Both GP I zones and dislocations introduced by the combinatorial pre-treatment can act as heterogeneous nucleation sites for precipitation,resulting in more precipitates and higher hardness than pre-stretched alloys A and B.Dislocations distribute uniformly in combinatorial pre-treated alloys owing to the existence of GP I zones and dislocations,which promote the precipitation and refine the precipitate size.Moreover,these alloys with distinct pre-stretching(2%–10%)show similar precipitation behavior and peak hardness,and it indicates that the dislocation-induced precipitation will not be affected by the density of dislocations when plenty of GP I zones pre-exist.