Abstract
7N01 aluminum (Al) alloys are treated by five heat treatment methods as peak aging (T6), over aging (T74), high temperature and subsequently low temperature aging (HLA), retrogression and reaging (RRA) and double retrogression and reaging (DRRA). The strength and fracture toughness of the five samples are tested, and the microstructures are investigated by optical microscopy (OM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that 7N01 Al-alloy treated at T6 condition has high strength but low fracture toughness. Compared with T6 treatment, T74 and HLA treatments increase the fracture toughness by 67% and 90% respectively, while the strength decrease by 9% and 17%. RRA process is a proper treatment method for 7N01 which improves the fracture toughness without sacrificing strength. The fracture toughness of DRRA treated alloy is much lower than that of RRA. Quantitative analysis through TEM images shows that the heat treatment affects the mechanical properties of 7N01 Al-alloy highly through changing the precipitates in grains and on grain boundaries, which can be explained by the coherency strengthening mechanism and Orowan mechanism.
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