A novel cryogenic treatment for reduction of residual stresses in 2024 aluminum alloy

Residual stresses induced during quenching of aluminum alloys cause distortion and have a negative effect on their properties. The purpose of this study is to reduce the residual stresses and improve mechanical properties by using a novel cryogenic treatment. Water quenched samples were cooled down by immersion in liquid nitrogen at −196 °C, following by rapid heating in hot oil at 180 °C and finally they were artificially aged. Residual stresses was measured by the hole drilling strain gauge method. The mechanical properties and microstructure of a heat treated samples were investigated by means of hardness measurements, tensile tests and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that this treatment can relieve up to 71% of the residual stresses compared to 29% related to the traditional cryogenic treatment that used boiling water as the reheating medium. In addition, there is a considerable increase of about 75 MPa in the ultimate tensile strength in comparison to the T6 heat-treated alloy. TEM observations revealed that the S′ precipitates were fine and uniformly distributed in the microstructure due to deformation during reheating in hot oil.