Effect of thermal exposure on mechanical properties hypo eutectic aerospace grade aluminium-silicon alloy

The effect of thermal exposure on the mechanical properties of a C355.0 aerospace grade aluminum-silicon alloy (5% Si - 1.2% Cu - 0.5% Mg) was investigated in the present study. The alloy specimens were subjected to T6 (solution treatment and artificial ageing treatment) temper treatment to enhance the strength properties through precipitation hardening. The T6 temper treatment involved solution heat treatment at 520 degrees C for 6 h, followed by water quenching and ageing at 150 degrees C. After the heat treatment, the specimens were exposed to various temperatures (50 degrees C, 100 degrees C, 150 degrees C, 200 degrees C and 250 degrees C) for 5 and 10 h to study the structural applications of this alloy to the various Mach number military aircrafts. After the thermal exposure, specimens were tested for tensile, hardness and impact properties (Charpy). The microstructure of the thermal exposed specimens was examined in the optical microscopes and correlated with the mechanical properties results. In summary, an increase of exposure time has a different effect on the tensile and hardness properties of the alloy. For the exposure time 5h, the tensile and hardness properties increase upto 100 degrees C and later decrease with an increase of temperature. In contrast, the tensile and hardness properties linearly decrease with an increase of temperature. Several factors such as matrix grain growth, diffusion rate, Si particles size and distribution, precipitate stability play a key role on deciding the tensile properties of the alloy. Comparing the relative effects of temperature and time, the temperature effects dominate more in deteriorating tensile properties of the alloy. There are no effects of exposure temperature and/or time on the impact properties of the alloy.