Effects of Pre-stretching and Aging Treatments on Microstructure, Mechanical Properties, and Corrosion Behavior of Spray-Formed Al-Li Alloy 2195

In this study, different pre-stretching and aging processes were applied to spray-formed Al-Cu-Li alloy 2195. The effects of different processes on the microstructures, mechanical properties, and corrosion behaviors of the alloy were examined. The strengthening and corrosion mechanisms were investigated. The samples treated with pre-stretching and aging have higher strength than the only aged samples. However, the strength is not significantly improved with the increase in the amount of pre-stretching. The pre-stretching treatment can suppress the formations of grain boundary precipitates (GBPs) and precipitate-free zones (PFZ), and the intergranular corrosion (IGC) sensitivity of the alloy is therefore reduced. The increase in pre-stretching promotes massive precipitation of the T₁ phase, which leads to the negative shift of open-circuit potential. The over-aging treatment after pre-stretching leads to the growth of the PFZ and GBPs as well as the coarsening of the T₁ phase. These changes in microstructure cause a decrease in mechanical properties and the re-sensitivity to the IGC. Under the same pre-stretching deformation, the two-step aging treatment (110 °C/12 h + 160 °C/24 h) can result in more intensive precipitation of the T₁ phase, which enhanced the strength to a higher level. Meanwhile, the two-step aged alloy was immune to the IGC. The evolution mechanism of IGC for the alloy with different pre-stretching and aging processes was proposed based on the TEM characterization and the observation of IGC morphology.