Effect of hot deformation on microstructure and quenching-induced precipitation behavior of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy
Introduction
Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys exhibit high strength after solution heat treatment, quenching and ageing, and therefore they have been used as structural materials especially in the aerospace industry [[1], [2], [3], [4]]. Quenching is a critical step in the production of these alloys. With the decrease of quenching rate, the mechanical properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys tend to decrease after ageing, and this phenomenon is called quenching sensitivity [[5], [6], [7], [8]]. It is known that in the slowly-quenched Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, a large amount of quenching-induced phase form, resulting in fewer solutes in the solid solution and then fewer metastable η' strengthening precipitates after ageing; as a result, the strength decreases [[9], [10], [11]].
Quenching-induced η phase (MgZn2), T phase (Al2Zn3Mg3), S phase (Al2CuMg) or Zn-Cu rich Y phase can be found in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, depending on the chemical compositions and microstructure of the alloy, and quenching rate, as recently summarized by Liu et al. [12]. Among them, Y phase is a new platelet phase recently found and named by Zhang et al. [13]. There is limited information about this phase. Y phase, of which the structure is similar to that of T1(Al2CuLi) phase observed in the Al-Cu-Li alloys, exhibits a high aspect ratio, and mainly contains Al, Zn, Cu and a small amount of Mg [13]. In some investigations on 7175, 7050, 7085 aluminum alloys, only quenching-induced η phase was identified under the studied quenching conditions [[14], [15], [16], [17]]. While in investigations on slowly-quenched aluminum alloys like 7010, 7055, 7085, 7136 etc. [13,[18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]], not only η phase but also other quenching-induced phases were found. For instance, Godard et al. [18] found η, S and T phases in 7010 aluminum alloy during step quenching. Tang et al. [19] found that in slowly-quenched 7055 aluminum alloy, in addition to η phase located at (sub)grain boundaries and inside grains, there were S and T phases in the substructure. Zhang [20] and Starink et al. [13,21,22] observed η, S and Y phases in 7150 aluminum alloy during step quenching and continuous cooling. More recently, Liu et al. [12] found η phase and Y phase in a slowly-quenched 7085 aluminum alloy. Tang et al. [23] found η, T and Y phases in a slowly-quenched 7136 aluminum alloy.
The precipitation of quenching-induced η phase seems to be well understood. It is known that this phase is closely related to heterogeneous nucleation sites such as grain boundaries (GBs), subgrain boundaries (SGBs), dispersoids, etc. [[12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]]. These nucleation sites are often affected by hot deformation, which is an indispensable step in the production of these alloys. For instance, Zhang et al. [25] found that for hot-rolled and solution heat treated 7050 aluminum alloy, with the increase of deformation rate, subgrains coarsen and the fraction of SGBs with high misorientation angle increased, resulting in a large amount of quenching-induced η phase inside subgrains and at SGBs. Li et al. [26] showed Zener-Hollomon parameter can change the amount of GBs, SGBs and Al3Zr dispersoids available for nucleation sites of quenching-induced η phase, and then change quenching sensitivity of 7085 aluminum alloy. By contrast, little is known on the precipitation behavior of quenching-induced T, S and Y phases though they have been observed in some Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys [[19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]].
In this work, only quenching-induced η and T phases were detected in a slowly-quenched 7055 aluminum alloy without hot rolling, while quenching-induced η, T, S and Y phases were detected in the slowly-quenched alloy after hot rolling and solution heat treatment. By means of electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) and scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), the precipitation behavior of these quenching-induced phases has been discussed based on their chemical compositions, nucleation sites and the microstructure features in different alloys. It can help to have better understanding of quenching sensitivity of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys.
Section snippets
Experimental
A 7055 aluminum alloy ingot with a thickness of 400 mm was prepared by direct-chilling technique, and the chemical compositions (wt%) are Al-8.10Zn-2.08 Mg-2.25Cu-0.11Zr, Fe<0.07, Si<0.07. The ingot was fully-homogenized by heating slowly to 465 °C and holding for 24 h in an air furnace and then cooled in still air. After pre-heating at 440 °C for 2 h, the ingot was rolled to a 60 mm thick plate by multi-passes with a total reduction rate of 85%. Samples with a size of 25 mm in length, 25 mm in
Phase diagram and CCT curves
Fig. 1 shows the vertical section phase diagram based on 7055 aluminum alloy composition (Zn=8.10 wt%, Mg=2.08 wt%) with variable Cu values. The black dotted line shows the approximate location of the studied 7055 aluminum alloy in this work. There are α(Al)+ S(Al2CuMg) phases at 470 °C, which is the solution heat treatment temperature of the studied alloy. With the decrease of temperature, the α(Al) phase starts to decompose. The phase regions appear in the order of α(Al) + S(Al2CuMg) + η(MgZn2
Discussion
The major quenching-induced phases and their nucleation sites in slowly-quenched HS and RS samples are summarized in Table 1. There are only η phase and T phase in the HS sample of 7055 aluminum alloy (Fig. 5, Fig. 6); while in the RS sample (Fig. 7, Fig. 8, Fig. 9, Fig. 10), not only η and T phases, but also S and Y phases have been observed. These results are not always in accordance with the simulated results in Fig. 1, Fig. 2. The effect of hot rolling need to be considered during
Conclusions
- (1)
Hot rolling changes the features of Al3Zr dispersoids and results in subgrains with higher dislocation density in 7055 aluminum alloy after solution heat treatment, and therefore leads to increased number and variety of quenching-induced phases.
- (2)
In the solution heat treated and slowly-quenched alloy without hot rolling, there are equiaxed grains with low dislocation density, and there is major quenching-induced η (MgZn2) phase located at grain boundaries and on some Al3Zr dispersoids in the
Data availability
The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0300901). The authors would like to thank Mr. Xingtao Liu from Purdue University who helped in calculating the phase diagram.
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