Abstract
The effects of the pre-stretching and ageing on the microstructure, strength and fracture toughness of the 7050 aluminum alloy were investigated by means of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, tensile test and the plane-strain fracture toughness test. The results indicate that the peak aged 7050 aluminum alloy possesses a higher strength, but its fracture toughness is poor. The high temperature and a subsequent low temperature ageing improve the fracture toughness by 8% while the strength is decreased by 3.5%. The fracture toughness of the over aged 7050 aluminum alloy is enhanced by 29% with a decrease in the strength of 7%. The retrogression and reaging provides an optimum combination of the strength and fracture toughness, which improves the fracture toughness by 17% without sacrificing the strength. After the pre-stretching, the precipitates within grains become coarse for all the ageing tempers which results in a lower strength. While the strength difference between the matrix and the grain boundary become lower and the area fraction of the grain boundary precipitates become smaller, leading to the higher fracture toughness.
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