Effects of Nano TiC Particles on Recrystallization and Mechanical Properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy

The recrystallization and mechanical properties of 7085 alloy and TiC/7085 composites with different nano TiC content (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 1 wt%) were investigated in this work. Results showed that as the TiC content increased from 0.1 to 1 wt%, dynamic recrystallization was promoted in which the composites proceeded by hot deformation; after T6 treatment, static recrystallization was hindered. In addition, the ultimate strength of composites first increased and then decreased with the increase of nano TiC particle content from 0.1 to 1 wt%. When the content of nano TiC particles reached 0.5 wt%, the tensile strength of the nanocomposites was improved to 608 MPa, 12% higher than that of 7085 alloy, via the reinforcing particle strengthening mechanism. Due to the grain coarsening and the TiC particle cluster, the ultimate tensile strength of 1 wt% TiC/7085 composite decreased to 585 MPa.