Residual stress magnitudes and related properties in quenched aluminium alloys

The surface and through thickness residual stress magnitudes present in heat treated high strength aluminium alloy components are frequently reported to exceed the uniaxial yield stress of small specimens of the same alloy measured immediately after quenching. In thick section plate and forgings, it is proposed that these high residual stress magnitudes are a consequence of hardening precipitation that occurs during quenching which allows a greater elastic stress to be supported. To investigate this theory, a Jominy end quench technique is used to determine the hardness of aluminium alloys 7010, 7175 and 5083 as a function of distance from the quenched end. Cooling curves have been measured for Jominy end quench specimens using deeply buried thermocouples and are compared with finite element model predictions. Tensile properties are also determined for small specimens quenched into cold and boiling water. Vickers hardness and X-ray diffraction residual stress measurements are undertaken on specimens of varying size acting as a comparison with the Jominy results. These results in combination with optical and electron microscopy data do suggest that low temperature rather than high temperature precipitation during the quench leads to increased as quenched mechanical strengths, with the consequence that less quench sensitive alloys will support higher residual stress magnitudes as section thicknesses increase.