Reduction in Residual Stress during Plastic Deformation of the Aluminum Alloy 7449

Abstract

Abstract Rectilinear blocks of the very high-strength aerospace aluminum alloy 7449 were solution treated and cold water quenched. They were then stress relieved immediately by cold compression. The amount of cold compression was systematically varied from 0 to 0.3 %. The amount of plastic strain was limited to well below the industrial standard of ~2 %. The blocks then received a stabilizing aging treatment. The residual stress distribution remaining in the blocks was characterized using neutron diffraction, with the aim of tracking how the through thickness 3-D residual strains and stresses change as cold compression progresses. Stress relief was of the order of 30–50 %, but there was no discernible systematic increase in stress relief as the plastic deformation magnitude was increased. It is suggested that this is mainly due to the differences between the samples being less than the experimental uncertainty of the neutron diffraction strain measurement technique.