Quenching residual stresses in T-section 7050 aluminum alloy forging

Distribution of quenching residual stresses in T-section 7050 aluminum alloy forging was obtained using a combination method of finite element method (FEM), contour method, layer removal method and X-ray diffraction. The results show that, experimental results and FEM result of internal residual stresses are in good agreement. While surface stresses obtained by layer removal method and contour method are different with X-ray diffraction and FEM, thus X-ray diffraction of surface stresses should be taken into consideration to fully understand the distribution of quenching stresses in the T-section 7050 aluminum alloy forging. Moreover, surface residual stresses are compres-sive of about - 150MPa, while residual stresses in the core are tensile with a maximum up to 210MPa, which is very harmful for the subsequent machining.