ASE 324L Lab #3: Strengthening Mechanisms and Aluminum Alloys

Purpose: This exercise is to serve as an introduction to an important aircraft structural material: aluminum, and to strengthening mechanisms via heat treatments. The reading assignment for this lab is Engineering Materials 1, Chapters 10 and 11, and Engineering Materials 2, Chapters 1, 2, and 10. Background: Aluminum alloys are widely used in aircraft structures because of a number of favorable characteristics, some of which are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. High strength to weight ratio Non-rusting properties Easy fabrication Metallurgical control of structure and properties Favorable economics.

For an overview of alloys of structural importance, refer to Table 1, Nominal Chemical Composition Wrought Alloys. Wrought alloys have been strain hardened as opposed to the cast alloys that have not. The alloys in Table 1 are divided into seven families on the basis of the principal alloying elements. The numerical prefix of the alloy designation system refers to the principal element as follows: ALLOY 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 PRINCIPAL ELEMENT 99% PURE AL Cu Mn Si Mg Mg, Si, Cu, Cr Zn CHARACTERISTICS commercially pure AL strong, heat treatable like 1000 but stronger high temperature strength intermediate between 1000 & 2000 corrosion resistant, formable, weldable strongest

The remaining digits in the numerical designation indicate mill controls on the produce: 2024, 7075, etc.

Aluminum Alloy Temper Designations (from www.matweb.com) The physical properties exhibited by aluminum alloys are significantly influenced by the treatment of the sample. A standardized system has been developed to designate these treatments. The aluminum alloy data sheets (Table 2) will generally have a suffix temper designation connected with them to indicate the treatment used to produce the properties listed. Basic Designations:

F As Fabricated - No special control has been performed to the heat treatment or strain hardening after the shaping process such as casting, hot working, or cold working. O Annealed - This is the lowest strength, highest ductility temper. H Strain Hardened - (applied to wrought products only) Used for products that have been strengthened by strain hardening, with or without subsequent heat treatment. The designation is followed by two or more numbers as discussed below. T Solution Heat Treated - Used for products that have been strengthened by heat treatment, with or without subsequent strain hardening. The designation is followed by one or more numbers as discussed below. W Solution Heat Treated - This is seldom encountered because it is an unstable temper that applies only to alloys that spontaneously age at ambient temperature after heat treatment.

Temper Codes:

H1 - Strain hardened only H2 - Strain hardened and partially annealed H3 - Strain hardened and stabilized H4 - Strain hardened and lacquered or painted. This assumes that thermal affects from the coating process affect the strain hardening; not encountered often. T1 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process and naturally aged to a substantially stable condition. T2 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process, cold worked, and naturally aged to a substantially stable condition. T3 - Solution heat treated, cold worked, and naturally aged to a substantially stable condition. T4 - Solution heat treated, and naturally aged to a substantially stable condition. T5 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process then artificially aged. T6 - Solution heat treated then artificially aged.

T7 - Solution heat treated then and overaged/stabilized. T8 - Solution heat treated, cold worked, then artificially aged. T9 - Solution heat treated, artificially aged, then cold worked. T10 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process, cold worked, then artificially aged.

The second digit (required) after the first H temper digit indicates the level of strain hardening and is based on the minimum ultimate tensile strength obtained. The third digit (optional) is a variation of the two digit temper. Additional digits may be used after the first T temper digit to indicate subsequent stress relieving by processes such as stretching, compressing, or a combination of the two.

Table 1 (Nominal Chemical Composition) lists the various alloys of aluminum and their compositions. Table 2 (Typical Mechanical Properties) illustrates the effects of the addition of various alloying elements and heat treatments. Table 3 (Standard Products) lists the standard forms of wrought aluminum alloys. Table 4 (Recommended Heat Treatments) lists the recommended temperatures and time for heat treatments.

Strengthening Mechanisms Solid solution hardening: This is done by adding impurities (alloying elements) into a metal to form a solid solution (alloy). For example, the 2000 family of Al alloys are formed by adding copper (Cu) into aluminum (Al). The solution treatment typically consists of heating the alloy to an elevated temperature (about 550C for Al 2000), holding it there for some time, and then rapidly cooling by quenching. This treatment results in a homogeneous structure in which the alloying elements are evenly dispersed in the Al crystalline lattice in a supersaturated solution. Since the alloying element (Cu) is larger than the Al atoms, the Cu atoms will not fit into the lattice the same as Al atoms; the lattice will thus be distorted locally around the substituted Cu atoms. See Figure 1 below. This lattice distortion inhibits dislocation motion thus hardening the alloy. In addition, the supersaturated state is one where more Cu atoms are squeezed into the Al than should be there at the room temperature.

Pure Aluminum

Aluminum and Copper Substitutional Solution

Figure 1: Two dimensional view of Al lattices

The specific details of the solution treatments for the 2000 family Al alloys are given in Table 4; this table gives the temperature to which the alloy is heated and then quenched from to give the homogeneous structure. Precipitate and dispersion strengthening: When a solid solution at a high temperature is cooled slowly to room temperature, the impurity atoms (e.g., Cu) may form precipitates as small particles. The precipitates obstruct the motion of dislocations, thus strengthening the alloy. Similarly, dispersion strengthening is achieved by mixing a dispersoid (small particles) into a powdered metal or ceramics, followed by compacting and sintering the mixed powders.

The annealed 2000 Al alloy is heated into the same temperature range as for the solution treated alloys, but is then cooled very slowly instead of quenched. The annealed structure has two phases. The Cu atoms diffuse out of the Al lattice and form an intermetallic compound, CuAl2, as a distinct phase within the Al matrix. The CuAl2 precipitates typically nucleate and grow on the grain boundaries. A very slow cooling gives large precipitates spaced well apart, providing very limited strengthening. An intermediate cooling rate from the solution temperature could produce a finer structure, with small precipitates closely spaced; this makes the alloy harder. If the cooling rate is too high, however, it produces a supersaturated solid solution at room temperature, without any precipitates at all. Aging is a process to achieve large increases in yield strength by forming specific precipitates in a controlled manner. For 2000 Al alloys, aging is accomplished by heating a solution treated alloy (quenched from 550C) to a warm temperature (190 C in our case) and holding it there for a prescribed time, during which the Cu atoms diffuse out of the Al lattice and form precipitates with a very fine structure. See Figure 10.6(a)-(e) in Book 2 for illustration and further explanation. During the aging treatment, there are two types of precipitates that form: coherent and incoherent, the difference being that the coherent precipitate has continuity with the Al lattice and the incoherent precipitate does not. The coherent precipitate causes large local deformations in the Al lattice which decrease dislocation mobility, thus hardening the alloy. The incoherent precipitate does not strain the Al lattice and has much less effect on the hardening and is not desired. Unfortunately, the incoherent precipitate is the equilibrium structure and will form if the alloy is aged for too long or at too high a temperature. The optimum aging temperatures and times are given for the various tempers in Table 4. Work hardening: this is achieved by cold rolling the Al alloy, similar to the cold-rolled steel in Lab #1. Plastic deformation at room temperature generates more dislocations, and the dislocation motion is obstructed by other dislocations, increasing the resistance and thus strength.

Figure 10.6 from Engineering Materials 2 (Ashby and Jones, 3rd edition).

Procedure: For this exercise we will examine the stress-strain behavior of several tempers of 2024 Aluminum, an alloy of about 4.5% Copper (Cu) in Aluminum (Al). The base alloy that we will use is 2024-T351 whose heat treatment can be found in Table 4. Basically, T351 has been solution treated, i.e. heated to 550 and then quenched to room temperature. The second specimen that we will examine was annealed. It was heated to 550, held there for 30 minutes, and then slowly cooled in a furnace. The annealing should have completely removed any effects of the T-351 treatment. The remaining specimens were aged by heating the base alloy T-351 to 190C, holding there for 0.5, 2, 6 and 24 hours, respectively, and then slowly cooling back to room temperature. This essentially adds an aging treatment to the T-351 treatment to the point where the material is aged to some degree. These processes will be discussed with reference to the Cu-Al phase diagram (Fig. 10.3), timetemperature-transformation (TTT) diagram (Fig.10.5), and the yield strength vs. aging time diagram (Fig. 10.7), all from Book 2, but shown here for convenience.

A tension test will be conducted on each temper of Aluminum. The specimen will be loaded (under displacement control) to failure. We may interrupt each experiment to check on elastic unloading and reloading. The axial extensometer and crosshead displacement (suitably normalized) will be used as measures of the axial strain. The diametrical extensometer is used to measure the transverse strain. Table 5. Specimen Heat Treatments Specimen # 1 2 3 4 5 6 T351 Annealed 550 C Aged at 190 C for 0.5 hrs Aged at 190 C for 2.0 hrs Aged at 190 C for 6.0 hrs Aged at 190 C for 24 hrs Heat Treatment

Data Analysis and Homework

Prepare a formal report, and answer the following questions. In section Experimental and Data Reduction Procedures: 1. Plot the engineering stress-strain diagrams for each specimen. In each plot, compare the responses obtained from the axial extensometer and the crosshead displacement, and comment on any differences. Finally, make one summary plot of the stress-strain diagrams for all specimens using the extensometer data. In section Results and Discussion: 2. From the stress-strain diagrams, determine and compare the following with a table: a) Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio (use the initial tangential modulus if necessary; plot the transverse strain vs axial strain diagram to determine Poissons ratio for each specimen); b) Yield stress at 0.2% offset; c) Ultimate tensile strength; d) Toughness; e) Ductility. 3. For each specimen, describe the heat treatment procedure and the produced microstructure, and explain the hardening mechanism that gives rise to the measured stress-strain behavior. 4. Based on the experimental results, which of the tempers would provide the optimum performance for structural components in aircraft, where high strength and toughness are required. 5. Explain how more dislocations can be generated during loading and how this relates to strain hardening. 6. Explain the tensile yield strength of polycrystalline metals (i.e., Y = 3 Y rather than Y = 2 Y ) and the effect of grain size.

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