Effect of temperature and frequency of dynamic loading in the viscoelastic properties of aluminium alloy 7075-T6

Abstract

The viscoelastic response of a material offers an alternative method for analyzing its microstructure, phase transformations and fatigue behaviour. In this work, the viscoelastic properties of commercial aluminium alloy (AA) 7075-T6 are studied with a Dynamic-Mechanical Analyzer (DMA), and results are combined with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) data. In accordance with this analysis, we propose an analytical model for the storage modulus E ' as a function of temperature, frequency of the dynamic loading and the concentration of Guinier-Preston Zones (GPZ). The latter parameter is obtained as a function of temperature after integration and fitting of the model. It is shown that the proposed model fits the experimental data for the storage modulus reasonably well in the prescribed region, and that this fact supports the hypothesis that the change in the storage modulus slope at about 130-160 °C is due to GPZ decomposition. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.