In the Al-1.0%Cu-0.96%Mg-0.36%Si alloy, it has been found that pre-aging before deformation is very important in controlling the precipitation characteristics of the alloy during the subsequent artificial aging process. Pre-aging temperature significantly affects these properties by causing changes in the main precipitates, while the alloy composition influences the overall material behavior. For the detailed pre-aging temperature investigations, the mechanical tests, the dislocation density evolution, and the microstructure changes were examined by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and Vickers hardness measurement. The conclusions provide that the hardness and dislocation density increase as the pre-aging temperature goes up. In this work, the deformation with the precipitation formation in the pre-aging period may enable such changes in the predominant precipitation in artificial aging.
Vu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.