中国有色金属学报(英文版)
Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China
Vol. 26 No. 9 September 2016 |
(1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China;
2. Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Materials Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education,
Central South University, Changsha 410083, China;
3. Light Alloy Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China;
4. Nonferrous Metal Oriented Advanced Structural Materials and
Manufacturing Cooperative Innovation Center, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China)
Abstract:The effect of grain structure on quench sensitivity of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Cr alloy was investigated by hardness testing, optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy. The results show that with the decrease of quenching rate from 960 °C/s to 2 °C/s, the hardness after aging is decreased by about 33% for the homogenized and solution heat treated alloy (H-alloy) with large equiaxed grains and about 43% for the extruded and solution heat treated alloy (E-alloy) with elongated grains and subgrains. Cr-containing dispersoids make contribution to about 33% decrement in hardness of the H-alloy due to slow quenching; while in the E-alloy, the amount of (sub) grain boundaries is increased by about one order of magnitude, which leads to a further 10% decrement in hardness due to slow quenching and therefore higher quench sensitivity.
Key words: grain structure; Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Cr alloy; dispersoids; quench sensitivity