Creep Resistance of 2024 Aluminum Alloy

Long term soaking creep rupture tests of a 2024 aluminum alloy in the T4 condition were performed at 100 °C and 130 °C under stresses ranged from 235 MPa to 370 MPa. It appears that the longer creep life can be obtained through the beneficial effect of underageing resulting in the GPB zones being retained in the matrix rather than dissolving and additional dynamic precipitation of S′ precipitates during testing; especially at the condition of 325 MPa at 100 °C, the alloy exhibits longer creep life of at least 14,604 h due to most fully developed very fine precipitates dispersion. When creep test at higher temperature (130°C), the grown S′ precipitates lead to significant reduction of creep rupture life. The correlation of applied stress, creep temperature, creep rupture time, and microstructure evolution were discussed.