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Improved Stress Corrosion Cracking Resistance and Strength of a Two-Step Aged Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy Using Taguchi Method

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Abstract

Multi-step heat treatment effectively enhances the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) resistance but usually degrades the mechanical properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys. With the aim to enhance SCC resistance as well as strength of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, we have optimized the process parameters during two-step aging of Al-6.1Zn-2.8Mg-1.9Cu alloy by Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array. In this work, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to find out the significant heat treatment parameters. The slow strain rate testing combined with scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope was employed to study the SCC behaviors of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy. Results showed that the contour map produced by ANOVA offered a reliable reference for selection of optimum heat treatment parameters. By using this method, a desired combination of mechanical performances and SCC resistance was obtained.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Key Fundamental Research Project of China and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University (No. 2014zzts017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, People’s Republic of China

    Lianghua Lin, Zhiyi Liu, Puyou Ying & Meng Liu

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  1. Lianghua Lin
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  2. Zhiyi Liu
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  3. Puyou Ying
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  4. Meng Liu
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Correspondence to Zhiyi Liu.

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Lin, L., Liu, Z., Ying, P. et al. Improved Stress Corrosion Cracking Resistance and Strength of a Two-Step Aged Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy Using Taguchi Method. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 24, 4870–4877 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-015-1733-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-015-1733-5

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