Effect of Precipitate State on Mechanical Properties, Corrosion Behavior, and Microstructures of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy

The mechanical properties, corrosion behavior and microstructures of the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy under various ageing treatments were investigated comparatively. The results show that the tensile strength and corrosion resistance are strongly affected by the precipitate state. Massive fine intragranular precipitates contribute to high strength. Discontinuous coarse grain boundary precipitates containing high Cu content, as well as the narrow precipitate free zone, result in low corrosion susceptibility. After the non-isothermal ageing (NIA) treatment, the tensile strength of 577 MPa is equivalent to that of 579 MPa for the T6 temper. Meanwhile, the stress corrosion susceptibility r (tf) and the maximum corrosion depth are 97.8% and 23.5 mu m, which are comparable to those of 92.8% and 26.7 mu m for the T73 temper. Moreover, the total ageing time of the NIA treatment is only 7.25 h, which is much less than that of 48.67 h for the retrogression and re-ageing condition.