Creep Mechanisms of an Al–Cu–Mg Alloy at the Macro- and Micro-Scale: Effect of the S′/S Precipitate

oleh: Yongqian Xu, Lingwei Yang, Lihua Zhan, Hailiang Yu, Minghui Huang

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2019-09-01

Deskripsi

A novel methodology combining the macro- and micro-creep techniques was employed to study the effect of S&#8242;/S precipitate growth on the creep mechanism of an Al&#8722;Cu&#8722;Mg alloy. An AA2524 alloy was pre-aged at 180 &#176;C to obtain S&#8242;/S precipitates with various sizes. The results showed that the precipitate size increased approximately linearly to &#8776;32 nm, &#8776;60 nm, and &#8776;105 nm after 3 h, 6 h, and 12 h of pre-aging, respectively. The growth of precipitate could significantly shorten the primary creep stage, despite the fact that the steady-state creep behavior was similar to that of the as-received alloy, as revealed by the macro tensile creep tests at 180 &#176;C and 180 MPa. This led to a stress exponent (2.4&#8722;2.5) of the Al alloy with various precipitate sizes that was quite close to that of the as-received Al alloy, implying a steady-state creep mechanism dominated by grain boundary sliding and dislocation interactions. Finally, the micro-creep tests showed a minor role of the precipitate size on the steady-state creep mechanism, as evidenced by the similar strain rate sensitivity (0.0169&#8722;0.0186), activation volume (&#8776;27 b<sup>3</sup>), and the results of a detailed transmission electron microscopy analysis of all tested alloys.