Precipitation in AA2195 by Atom Probe Tomography and Transmission Electron Microscopy

Abstract

The transportation industries are constantly striving to achieve minimum weight to cut fuel consumption and improve overall performance. Different innovative design strategies have been placed and directed toward weight saving combined with good mechanical behavior. Among different materials, aluminum-based alloys play a key role in modern engineering and are widely used in construction components because of their lightweight and superior mechanical properties. Introduction of different nanostructure features can improve the service and the physical properties of such alloys. In this study, alloy AA2195 has been selected and characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography. Quantitative chemical analyses reveal that applying the rolling deformation on the specimen causes the uniform distribution of different platelet precipitates such as T1(Al2CuLi) and θ′(Al2Cu), which increases the hardening behavior of such alloys. Applying a plastic deformation on such alloys has been highlighted as an important engineering tool for the manipulation with second-phase precipitates in the microstructure. In this study, the findings of the characterization analysis were translated to construct a robust microstructure with an excellent hardness behavior (hardness value of 209 HV) by applying a low-energy consumption, cost-effective method.