FE-Simulation and Measurement of the Residual Stress in Al6061 During T6 Heat Treatment

The purpose of this study is to predict the residual stress in Al6061 during T6 heat treatment. In this study, the variable residual stress in case of the solid solution(530 .deg. C, 2h) and artificial ageing(175 .deg. C, 9h) of Al6061 subjected to T6 heat treatment is determined at different ageing times. A heat treatment experiment is conducted to determine the heat transfer coefficient, on the basis of which the residual stress during the T6 heat treatment is predicted. In order to take into account the relaxation of residual stress during artificial ageing, a Zener.Wert.Avrami function is used and elasto-plastic nonlinear analysis is conducted through FE-simulation. Further, the residual stress is measured by using the X-ray diffraction(XRD) method, and the result is compared with the result from the FE-simulation. It is found that the residual stress predicted form the FE-simulation is in good agreement with the residual stress measured by using the XRD method