Thermal stability analysis of a lightweight Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy by TEM and tensile tests

Long-term thermal stability plays an important role in practical applications of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys. In the present work, thermal stability of the T7452-treated 7085 Al alloy was assessed at temperatures of 100, 125, 150 and 175 °C for 100, 500 and 1000 h, through hardness, electrical conductivity and tensile tests after thermal exposure. The nanoscale precipitates under different thermal exposure conditions were also qualitatively studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that thermal stability of the alloy is more sensitive to thermal exposure temperature than to exposure time. The hardness increases first and then decreases with the increase of exposure temperature while it decreases gradually as exposure time prolongs. However, the variation of electrical conductivity is opposite. The tensile strength, yield strength and hardness after 100 °C/100 h thermal exposure increased by 2.4%, 6.7% and 9.2% than those of the alloy without thermal exposure, respectively. The precipitate sequence during thermal exposure is coincident with that of aging. In addition, as thermal exposure deepens, the average radius of precipitates increases while the volume fraction decreases. Meanwhile, the grain boundary precipitates coarsen and transform from continuous to discrete. The influence of precipitates on properties of the alloy is discussed quantitatively.