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The Influence of the Zn/Mg Ratio on the Quench Sensitivity of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloys

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Abstract

The effects of the Zn/Mg ratio on the precipitate behavior and mechanical properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys at different quenching rates were investigated by a Jominy end-quench test, tensile test and microstructural analysis. The results show that the hardness and strength of the aged alloys clearly decrease with increasing quenching distance (D). Additionally, the alloy with a Zn/Mg ratio of 5.42 has a more obvious drop in yield strength than the alloy with a higher ratio of 7.09 when D is varied from 10 mm to 142 mm. During slow quenching, fewer equilibrium η phases are formed in the alloy with a higher Zn/Mg ratio of 7.09, and then a larger number of fine η′ phases precipitate during subsequent aging, which reduces the quench sensitivity of the alloy.

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Acknowledgments

The research received support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFB2001801), the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 2020JJ5742) and the Key Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (2020B010186002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Shichao Liu, Guofu Xu, Yao Li & Xiaoyan Peng

  2. Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

    Liansheng Huang

  3. School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom

    Lei Tang

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  1. Shichao Liu
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Correspondence to Xiaoyan Peng.

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Liu, S., Xu, G., Li, Y. et al. The Influence of the Zn/Mg Ratio on the Quench Sensitivity of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloys. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 31, 4214–4223 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-06472-y

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