Study on quenching sensitivity of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy containing trace amounts of Sc and Zr.

The quenching sensitivity of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy containing trace amounts of Sc and Zr is studied by interrupted quenching experiments. Electrical conductivity of the quenched samples and the hardness of the samples subjected to one-stage and two-stage aging, are measured to construct the time–temperature–transformation (TTT) curves and the time–temperature–property (TTP) curves. It is revealed that the quenching sensitivity of the alloy is mainly influenced by the precipitation of coarse η phases during slow quenching, which preferentially nucleate and grow at grain boundaries and at the Al3(Sc, Zr) dispersoids that are incoherent with the matrix. The quenching sensitivity increases with the size and quantity of the coarse η phases. The nose temperature is 290 °C for both TTT and TTP curves, where the phase transformation rate is the fastest and the quenching sensitivity is the highest. Compared to one-stage aged samples, two-stage aged samples exhibit lower quench sensitivity due to the reduced transformation rate from η′ phases to η phases after slow quenching. The quenching sensitive temperatures range from 206 to 358 °C for the one-stage aged samples and from 213 to 352 °C for the two-stage aged samples. Moreover, based on the simulated TTT and continuous cooling transformation curves, an optimized quenching process is proposed in the present work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]