Influence of quenching cooling rate on residual stress and tensile properties of 2A14 aluminum alloy forgings

Abstract

To balance the quenching residual stress and the mechanical properties of aluminum alloys, the influence of cooling rate on the residual stress and tensile properties was investigated by numerical simulation and quenching experiments. During the quenching experiments, 2A14 aluminum alloy samples were treated with different water temperatures (20°C, 70°C, 100°C) and a step quenching process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to measure the residual stress. Prior to them, the quenching sensitivity was studied. For this purpose, the time-temperature-properties (TTP) curves were measured and the alloy microstructure was observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicated that the mechanical properties of 2A14 aluminum alloys were mainly determined by the cooling rate within the quenching sensitive temperature range from 300 to 400°C. Lower cooling rates reduced the tensile strength and yield strength due to a decrease amount of fine precipitates, and reduced the residual stress with the reduction of plastic strain and the degree of inhomogeneous plastic deformation. In addition, the residual stress changed faster than the tensile properties with decreasing cooling rate. Therefore, warm water (70°C) was used to balance the residual stress and tensile properties of 140-mm-thick 2A14 aluminum alloy forgings, since it can achieve low cooling rates. Furthermore, by combining this characteristic and the material quenching sensitivity, step quenching produced similar tensile properties and lower residual stress, compared with the sample quenched in warm water (70°C), by increasing cooling rate within quenching sensitivity range and reducing it in other ranges.