Microstructural development during aging of 2014 aluminum alloy composite

The 2014 aluminum alloy reinforced with 0.1 and 0.15 volume fraction of alu mina particles (VFAP) have been solutionized for a range of time from 1.5 t o 20 h at 813 K. The effect of solutionizing time (ST) on the age hardening response of the composites has been studied and compared with the characte ristics exhibited by the monolith. The results indicate that increasing the ST decreases the time required to get the peak hardness (TPH) values in th e monolith but the composites do not show a systematic monotonic behavior. The TPH values first decrease and then increase with an increase in ST at a n aging temperature of 473 K for the composite. It has been speculated that he ST influences the concentration of quenched-in vacancies and continued heating may affect the bonding between particles and matrix which can gener ate additional dislocations throughout the solutionizing process due to cur vature effects. (C) 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.