Improved stress relaxation stability of a heat-resistant Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloy with good mechanical properties by a pre-annealing/solution-aging treatment

Good stress relaxation stability enables heat-resistant aluminum alloys to serve well at high temperatures. From the viewpoint of simultaneous regulation of microstructure and precipitates, a deliberate pre-annealing (200–400 ℃) followed by solution-aging (T6) treatment was proposed to improve the stress relaxation stability of an Al-Cu-Mg-Ag heat-resistant aluminum alloy in this work. A peak effect on the stress relaxation stability was found with a pre-annealing temperature of 325 ℃, which is associated with larger-sized grains and finer-sized precipitates of the alloy. This interesting peak phenomenon is attributed to a good balance of recrystallization and precipitation. Moreover, the regulated microstructure surprisingly assisted the 325 ℃ pre-annealing+T6 treated alloy with good tensile properties. The proposed heat treatment method provides a route for developing high-performance heat-resistant aluminum alloys.