Effect of thermomechanical processing on mechanical properties and microstructural evolution of Al-Mg-Zn alloy

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of thermomechanical processing route on the microstructural evolution, and mechanical properties (tensile strength, hardness and elastic plastic (J1c) fracture toughness) of the 7075-aluminum alloy. As received 7075 Al Alloy underwent for the solution heat treatment (SHT) followed by artificial aging and cold rolling (CR) process, respectively. Generally, it was observed that cold rolling of 7075 Al alloy is very challenging, but in this work 90 % cold rolling successfully achieved by optimizing the thermo-mechanical process. The novel heat treatment process for achieving the 90 % cold rolling reduction as follow: firstly, SHT was performed at 470°C for 8 hours(h), there after aging at 140°C for 21 h was performed. Characterization techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was employed to assess the microstructure and phase constituents. Elastic plastic (J1c) fracture toughness was studied well on SHT, peak aged and rolled sample. Additionally, Vickers hardness and tensile test were performed. Aging and Cold rolling treatment effectively enhanced tensile strength and hardness ascribed to formation of fine rod shape precipitates of η"(Mg2Zn3) and formation of sub grains with localized strain accumulation, respectively. Split diffraction spots with satellite pattern in long range ordering has also observed in selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern of η" attributable to stacking faults and periodic arrangement of precipitates, respectively, as a consequence of this 90 % cold rolling of 7075 Al alloy was accomplished. The maximum Vickers hardness, Tensile strength and Elastic plastic (J1c) fracture toughness values were achieved after SHT (470°C for 2 h), peak aged (PA) (140°C for 21 h) and 90 % cold rolling are 226 HV, 526 MPa and 344.54 kJ/m2, respectively.