The effect of Zr content on quench sensitivity of AlZnMgCu alloys was investigated by mechanical properties testing and microstructure observations. The results show that with the increase of Zr the quench sensitivity relative to hardness and strength increases, while that relative to elongation decreases. From hardness and strength viewpoints, the low quench sensitivity is observed for the Zr-free and 0.05% Zr-containing alloys, which is quite quench sensitive from the ductility viewpoint. The largest quench sensitivity relative to hardness and strength is observed for 0.1% Zr-containing alloy, this is mainly due to large amount of high angle grain boundaries and incoherent Al3Zr dispersoids caused by recrystallization, which may efficiently promote heterogeneous precipitation during air quenching. More than 0.05% Zr can significantly decrease the quench sensitivity relative to ductility, which can be primarily attributed to recrystallization inhibiting and grain refining effects of Zr.
The influence of quench transfer time on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 7055 aluminum alloy with and without zirconium was investigated by tensile properties test,optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.For the Zr-free alloy,the strength increases to the highest value at 20 s with transfer time,and then decreases slightly.The elongation decreases slowly with transfer time within 20 s,and more rapidly after 20 s.For the Zr-containing alloy,prolonging transfer time within 20 s results in slight decrease in the strength and elongation,and rapid drop of which is observed after 20 s.For the Zr-free alloy,prolonging transfer time can increase the percentage of intergranular fracture,which is mainly caused by wide grain boundary precipitate free zone.The failure mode of the Zr-containing alloy is modified from the predominant transgranular void growth and intergranular fracture to transgranular shear and intergranular fracture with increase in the transfer time,which is attributed to the wider grain boundary precipitate free zone and coarse equilibrium η phases in the matrix.
A rate dependent crystal plasticity constitutive model considering self and latent hardening in finite element analysis was developed to simulate rolling textures of pure aluminum. By changing the assignment of orientations to finite elements, i.e. assigning the same set of orientations to all elements or different orientations to different elements, the influences of grain interaction on the formation of rolling textures were numerically simulated with this kind of crystal plasticity finite element model. The simulation results reveal that the grains without considering grain interaction rotate faster than those considering grain interaction, and the rotation of grain boundary is slowed down due to the grain interaction. For a good simulation more elements should be assigned to one grain, in which the effects of both the boundary and interior parts of grain contribute to the formation of rolling textures.
