Study on Aging Precipitation Characteristic of High Strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy

The precipitation of MgZn2 phase in aging process of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy forging was characterized qualitatively after transmission electron microscope(TEM)observation,X-ray diffraction phase analysis and the exact measure of lattice parameter.And,the precipitation of the second-phase in aging process was simulated after test the resistivity of the alloy in a continuous heating process and delayed time processing.The results show that when heating in the same rate,the alloy resistivity increases with temperature first,a mutation point appears at 110℃,and the resistivity reaches its peak at 120℃.Then,the resistivity decreases and achieves a minimum at about 170℃.Afterwards,it increases again.The change of resistivity results from a combined effect of the temperature and phase transformation.The volume precipitation of η’ phase dominates at about 120℃,and the resistivity of forgings decreases accordingly.When the specimen cools in a furnace at 240℃,the phase transformation finishes basically and the alloy content of Al-matix keeps stable,thus,the alloy resistivity depends on the temperature only.It decreases with temperature and time since the end of precipitation.The higher the temperature is,the bigger it will be.With a big descending rate of the resistivity curve,the time to reach the stable value becomes shorter.