Reducing Residual Stress in 7050 Aluminum Alloy Die Forgings by Heat Treatment

Aerospace aluminum alloy forgings can have the residual stresses arising from heat treatment reduced by modification to the quench cooling rates and subsequent aging treatments. A series of propeller hubs usually made from the alloy 2014 have been closed die forged from the less quench sensitive alloy 7050. These forgings have been subjected to various quenching and aging treatments in an attempt to improve the balance of mechanical properties with the residual stress magnitudes. These forgings were not amenable to stress relieving by cold compression or stretching. Warm water $(60°C)$ and boiling water quenches are investigated in addition to quenching into molten salt $(200°C)$ and uphill quenching from $−196°C$⁠. Various dual aging treatments including retrogression and reaging have been evaluated in an attempt to optimize low residual stress magnitudes with mechanical properties. Residual stresses determined by the center hole-drilling strain-gauge method are reported in addition to electrical conductivity, stress corrosion cracking, fracture toughness, initiation fatigue, and tensile mechanical property variations. It was found that quenching into boiling water and salt at $200°C$ did substantially reduce the residual stress but had only a small detrimental effect on the majority of the properties measured. However, the influence of quench rate on fracture toughness was much more significant. This is attributed to both coarse grain boundary precipitation and heterogeneous precipitation of $η$ on $Al3Zr$ dispersoids within the grains, which promotes easier crack propagation.