Influence of temperature-dependent properties of aluminum alloy on evolution of plastic strain and residual stress during quenching process

Abstract

To lessen quenching residual stresses in aluminum alloy components, theory analysis, quenching experiments, and numerical simulation were applied to investigate the influence of temperature-dependent material properties on the evolution of plastic strain and stress in the forged 2A14 aluminum alloy components during quenching process. The results show that the thermal expansion coefficients, yield strengths, and elastic moduli played key roles in determining the magnitude of plastic strains. To produce a certain plastic strain, the temperature difference increased with decreasing temperature. It means that the cooling rates at high temperatures play an important role in determining residual stresses. Only reducing the cooling rate at low temperatures does not reduce residual stresses. An optimized quenching process can minimize the residual stresses and guarantee superior mechanical properties. In the quenching process, the cooling rates were low at temperatures above 450 °C and were high at temperatures below 400 °C.