Aging behavior of an Al-Li-Cu-Mg-Zr alloy

The aging processes in an Al-Li-Cu-Mg-Zr alloy have been examined by means of electrical resistivity measurements and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy coupled with an image-processing system. The specimens, quenched in iced brine after solution treatment, were reheated at a constant rate of 1 K/min up to 773 K. Six reactions were clearly separated in the temperature derivative of the resistivity/temperature curve, i.e., there was a slight increase at temperatures around 333 K, a large decrease at around 368 K, a significant decrease at around 448 K, a large increase at around 538 K, a remarkable decrease at around 568 K, and a final broad increase at around 623 K. Each reaction observed by the electrical resistivity measurement was examined metallographically. In the as-quenched specimen, spherical undissolved beta' (AlZr3 L 1(2) structure) particles dispersed, but the matrix was already ordered congruently into an L12 structure. The first reaction at around 333 K is probably due to the increase of the degree in the congruent ordering, but the second one, at around 368 K, is thought to rise from the rearrangements of antiphase domain boundaries (APDBs) such as the partition of Li atoms between an APDB and the matrix, the APDBs lying parallel to the {100} and {110} planes. Reheating to temperatures around 448 K induces the phase separation, with well-defined interfaces into Li-rich, ordered delta' (L 1(2)) and Li-poor, less-ordered regions, and the Ostwald ripening of the ordered regions follows. The reactions at 538, 568, and 633 K were identified as the dissolution of delta' particles into the matrix, the precipitation of delta (A1Li B32) and S' (A1(2)CuMg orthorhombic) particles, and the dissolution of both delta and S' compounds into the matrix, respectively.