High temperature mechanical properties and microstructure of die forged Al-5.87Zn-2.07Mg-2.42Cu alloy

The high temperature mechanical properties (250 degrees C) and microstructure of a die-forged Al-5.87Zn-2.07Mg-2.42Cu alloy after T6 heat treatment were investigated. High temperature tensile tests show that as the temperature increases from room temperature to 250 degrees C, the ultimate tensile strength of the alloy decreases from 638 to 304 MPa, and the elongation rises from 13.6% to 20.4%. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) were applied for microstructure characterization, which indicates that the increase of tensile temperature can lead to the coarsening of precipitates, drop of dislocation density, and increase of dynamic recovery. After tensile testing at 250 degrees C, a sub-grain structure composed of a high fraction of small-angle grain boundary is formed.