Effect of Heat Treatment on the In-Plane Anisotropy of As-Rolled 7050 Aluminum Alloy

Abstract

Tensile tests were conducted on both as-quenched and over-aged 7050 aluminum alloy to investigate the effect of heat treatment on the in-plane anisotropy of as-rolled 7050 aluminum alloy. The results showed that the tensile direction has limited effect on mechanical properties of the as-quenched 7050 aluminum alloy. The in-plane anisotropy factors (IPA factor) of tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation in as-rolled 7050 aluminum alloy fluctuate in the vicinity of 5%. The anisotropy of the as-quenched 7050 aluminum alloy is mainly affected by the texture according to single crystal analysis based on the Schmid factor method. Besides, the IPA factor of the elongation in the over-aged 7050 aluminum alloy reaches 11.6%, illustrating that the anisotropy of the over-aged 7050 aluminum alloy is more prominent than that of the as-quenched. The occurrence of the anisotropy in the over-aged 7050 aluminum alloy is mainly attributed to the microstructures. which are characterized by visible precipitate free zones (PFZs) and coarse precipitates in (sub)grain boundaries.

Keywords

• aluminum alloy
• heat treatment
• anisotropy
• microstructure
• texture