Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

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Dependences of microstructures and properties on initial tempers of

creep aged 7050 aluminum alloy
C. Lei a , H. Yang a,∗ , H. Li a,∗ , N. Shi a , L.H. Zhan b
a
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, PR
China
b
State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, School of Mechanical and Electrical, Central South University, Changsha 410083, PR
China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The dependences of microstructures and properties on initial tempers of 7050 aluminum alloy under
Received 7 March 2016 creep age forming (CAF) conditions are investigated by using transmission electron microscope (TEM),
Received in revised form 27 June 2016 scanning electron microscope (SEM), mechanical property tests and corrosion resistance tests. Three
Accepted 2 July 2016
tempers are selected as the initial tempers for CAF, viz., solution, retrogression and re-solution. The
Available online 4 July 2016
constant-stress creep aging tests are conducted under simulated CAF conditions at 165 ◦ C and 250 MPa
for 18 h. TEM observations show that there are obviously different initial microstructures in the alloy
Keywords:
with various initial tempers. After creep aging, a lot of fine and homogeneous transgranular precipitates
Creep age forming
Initial temper
with continuous grain boundary precipitates are found in the specimen with initial temper of solution;
Precipitate for retrogression temper, the transgranular precipitates grow up and the spacing of discontinuous grain
Mechanical property boundary precipitates become wider; the transgranular re-precipitation and the biggest grain boundary
Corrosion resistance precipitates with the widest spacing are observed in the specimen with initial temper of re-solution.
7050 aluminum alloy Due to the fine transgranular precipitates, the creep aged specimens with initial tempers of solution and
re-solution exhibit higher mechanical properties than that of retrogression with coarse transgranular
precipitates. Both the creep aged specimens with initial tempers of retrogression and re-solution have
lower corrosion susceptibility due to their discontinuous grain boundary structures, while the continu-
ous grain boundary precipitates reduce the corrosion resistance of the creep aged specimen with initial
temper of solution. Combining both mechanical properties and corrosion resistances into account, under
the given thermal-mechanical conditions, the re-solution temper may be a preferable choice to achieve
high performance of the components beyond the precise shape in CAF.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As a novel and promising forming technology, creep age form-
ing (CAF) has been developed and applied to manufacture large
integral panel components. Zhan et al. (2011a) reviewed recent
developments of CAF, including experimentation, modeling and
applications, and noted the most prominent advantage of CAF is
that the forming process and age hardening can take place simul-
taneously. Therefore, an integrated effect of improving material
properties while shaping can be possibly achieved. However, the
controlling of both forming precision and mechanical properties is
very difficult to achieve due to the complex interaction between
creep and aging in the CAF process. For instance, the precipitates
∗ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: yanghe@nwpu.edu.cn (H. Yang), liheng@nwpu.edu.cn (H. Li).
formed in aging will hinder the dislocation movement and thus
hamper the creep deformation. Meanwhile, the dislocation mul-
tiplication from creep deformation can provide more nucleation
sites to promote aging precipitation. In addition, it is well known
that there are many heat treatment methods suitable for the heat
treatable high strength aluminum alloys, and these methods may
be used before CAF to obtain desired initial temper for control-
ling subsequent creep and aging process. Thus the various initial
tempers of the material in CAF will introduce difficulties for fully
understanding the interaction between creep and aging. In order
to acquire enhanced mechanical properties to achieve high perfor-
mance of the formed components in addition to the geometrical
precision, it is urgently needed to investigate the dependences of
microstructures and properties on the initial tempers of aluminum
alloy in CAF.
In view of the large springback occurred in the unloading
process, a number of early studies mainly aimed at predicting

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2016.07.004
0924-0136/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
126 C. Lei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132
springback after CAF to improve the forming precision. Ho et al.
(2004b) proposed a unified creep constitutive model and predicted
the amount of springback for forming doubly curved and single cur-
vature sheet components. Based on this work, Jeunechamps et al.
(2006) suggested a unified creep aging constitutive model consid-
ering the age hardening during CAF, in which the nucleation and
growth of precipitates were related to the creep deformation (i.e.,
dynamic aging). Zhan et al. (2011b) introduced the normalized dis-
location density and precipitate size parameters into a set of creep
aging constitutive equations to model the dislocation hardening
and age hardening. With the addition of solution hardening, the
material yield strength evolution can be formulized by the con-
tribution of each individual hardening variable. Focus on achieving
high performance requirement of the formed components, the aims
of this study on CAF should not only satisfy the needs of high pre-
cision in forming but also meet the needs of obtaining enhanced
mechanical properties of the formed products.
In recent years, the effects of CAF process on microstructures
and properties of aluminum alloy have been studied. Zhu and
Starke (2001) found that the applied stress can affect the orien-
tation of precipitates in the aging process of Al-xCu alloys, and the
yield strengths of the stress aged specimens are lower than that
of the stress-free aged specimens. Jeshvaghani et al. (2011) inves-
tigated the effects of time and temperature on microstructure of
7075 aluminum alloy sheet during CAF, and observed the evolution
of transgranular and grain boundary precipitates by transmission
electron microscope (TEM). Guo et al. (2013) found that the exter-
nal elastic tensile stress promotes the formation of precipitates
and shortens the aging period of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy. Zhan et al.
(2014) investigated the effects of process parameters on mechani-
cal properties and microstructures of 2124 aluminum alloy in creep
aging process, and suggested that the material creep aged under
200 MPa and 185 ◦ C for 8 h can lead to the optimum mechani-
cal properties due to the coexistence of strengthening S and S
phases in the matrix. Chen et al. (2012) found that the applied stress
induces the coarsening of precipitates in 7050 aluminum alloy dur-
ing creep aging process, and the yield strength and tensile strength
of the creep aged samples are lower than that of the stress-free aged
samples. Lin et al. (2013) studied the effects of creep aging pro-
cess on precipitate microstructures of 7075 aluminum alloy, and
found that with the increasing of temperature and applied stress,
the amount of the main strengthening ␩ and ␩ phases increase.
Furthermore, Lin et al. (2014) reported that the exfoliation cor-
rosion (EXCO) resistance of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy first increases
and then decreases with the increasing of temperature and stress
in creep aging process. Lumley et al. (2002) found that the creep
resistance of an Al-Cu-Mg-Ag alloy with under-aging temper is sig-
nificantly higher than that of the alloy with peak-aging temper.
Li et al. (2016) studied the tensile and compressive creep aging
behaviors of 2050 aluminum alloy with different initial tempers,
viz., solution, under-aging and peak-aging, and indicated that there
is close relationship between the control mechanism of creep defor-
mation and the initial temper of material. It is noted that most of
the above experimental materials are in the solution temper, and
the effects of various initial tempers on microstructures and prop-
erties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu series alloys in CAF are rarely reported, apart
from Al-Cu-Mg series alloys. Therefore, in order to clearly under-
stand the interaction between creep and aging, and achieve both
high precision forming and mechanical property improvement, the
study focuses on investigating the effects of initial tempers on
microstructures and properties of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu series alloys.
Taking a high strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy of 7050 as the test
material, this study aims to investigate the effects of initial tem-
pers on the evolutions of microstructures and properties of creep
aged aluminum alloy by using the constant-stress creep aging tests
under the CAF conditions. Three initial tempers are considered for
this alloy. The solution temper is most widely used in CAF, so it
is chosen as the first initial temper. Since the alloy with initial
temper of retrogression has the designed microstructure which
is conducive for the alloy to obtain the correlation between high
mechanical properties and excellent corrosion resistance in the
subsequent aging step, the multi-step heat treatment based on
retrogression and re-aging (RRA) has been proposed for the heat
treatment of high strength 7xxx series aluminum alloys (Marlaud
et al., 2010). Thus, the retrogression temper is selected as the sec-
ond initial temper for CAF in this work. Nevertheless, Lin et al.
(2006) indicated that the narrow temperature-time window limits
the application of RRA for thick plate. To provide a remedial mea-
sure for over-aged material to regain high strength, the re-solution
and re-aging (RSRA) as a novel multi-step heat treatment has been
developed. It has found that the re-solution has the similar effect
as retrogression for obtaining desired microstructure, while has
the wider temperature-time window. Therefore, the re-solution
temper is taken as the third initial temper used in this study.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. As-received material and heat treatments
A typical commercial 7050 aluminum alloy (AA7050) was used
in this work, which belongs to the high strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu
series alloys. The as-received material is a 30 mm thick hot rolled
plate. The as-rolled AA7050 has been certified as containing coarse
constituent particles (Al7 Cu2 Fe and Mg2 Si) and fine intermetallics
(MgZn2 and Al2 CuMg). Xu et al. (2012) determined that the fine
intermetallics can be dissolved by subsequent solution treatment,
but the coarse constituent particles are quite stable and insolu-
ble. Table 1 lists its chemical composition detected by a SPECTRO
MAXx direct-reading spectrometer. The creep aging testing spec-
imens with the gauge length of 50 mm were machined out from
the rolling direction of the hot rolled plate, and the geometry and
dimensions of the specimens are shown in Fig. 1.
Various heat treatments were conducted to obtain different ini-
tial tempers of AA7050, and their procedures are shown in Fig. 2. For
solution temper, the as-rolled specimen was subjected to a solution
treatment at 470 ◦ C for 50 min and subsequent room temperature
water quenching. The specimen with retrogression temper was
from peak-aged (T6 temper) material obtained by the peak-aging
treatment at 120 ◦ C for 24 h, and then the retrogression treatment
was carried out at 200 ◦ C for 5 min in a salt bath. Viana et al. (1999)
suggested that the retrogression temperatures higher than 180 ◦ C
are more efficient in dissolving the precipitates, and Li et al. (2009)
found that the prolonged retrogression treatments will reduce the
mechanical properties of material. Therefore, the temperature of
200 ◦ C and time of 5 min may be an ideal combination for ret-
rogression. The specimen with re-solution temper was from the
over-aged (T73 temper) material obtained by a two-step aging at
115 ◦ C for 8 h and then 165 ◦ C for 16 h. Similar to the solution treat-
Table 1
Chemical composition of AA7050 (wt.%).
Zn Mg Cu Zr Si Fe Ti Al
6.02 1.97 2.23 0.12 0.07 0.10 0.03 Bal.
Fig. 1. Geometry and dimensions of creep aging testing specimen (unit: mm).
 C. Lei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132
Fig. 2. Heat treatment procedures for obtaining various initial tempers: (a) solution;
(b) retrogression; (c) re-solution.
ment, the re-solution treatment included hot insulation at 470 ◦ C
for 50 min and rapid water quenching.
2.2. Constant-stress creep aging tests
The constant-stress creep aging tests were conducted using a
specified 100 kN electronic creep aging testing machine with ther-
mal environment furnace. The temperature fluctuation of testing
environment can be controlled less than 1 ◦ C. In view of the more
significant effect of higher aging temperature on the microstruc-
tures and properties, the experimental temperature of 165 ◦ C was
chosen. The applied stress of 250 MPa is within the typical stress
range in the actual CAF process (Ho et al., 2004a). Meanwhile,
in order to avoid the serious over-aging, the creep aging time is
reduced to 18 h from the conventional T6 treatment time of 24 h
(Guyot and Cottignies, 1996).
In creep aging tests, the specimens were fitted and aligned in
the middle of the furnace, and heated until temperature reached
165 ◦ C. The environment temperatures were detected in three loca-
tions, viz., at the top and bottom of furnace and around the middle
of sample. The specimens were hold for 20 min in the design tem-
perature. Then an elastic tensile load of 250 MPa was applied with
the loading speed of 0.5 mm/min, and the applied stress remained
unchanged during whole creep aging test. The elongation of gauge
section in specimen was measured by a probe-type grating line dis-
placement transducer with the accuracy of 5 × 10−4 mm. The tests
lasted 18 h except the heating, holding and loading time.
2.3. Microstructure characterizations and properties tests
The precipitate microstructures of AA7050 with three initial
tempers before and after creep aging process were characterized
by TECNAL G2 F30 TEM at 200 kV. The specimens for TEM were
frictional thinned down to 60 ␮m, and cut to 3 mm diameter disks.
Then the disks underwent twin-jet electropolish in a solution of 20%
perchloric acid and 80% ethanol (in volume) at −20 ◦ C and 20 V.
127
The material properties of the creep aged specimens consid-
ered in this study are yield strength, tensile strength, elongation,
hardness, electrical conductivity, EXCO resistance and stress corro-
sion crack (SCC) resistance. The yield strength, tensile strength and
elongation were measured by the tensile tests, which were carried
out by a MTS CMT5205 universal material testing machine with a
tensile speed of 2 mm/min. The hardness tests were conducted by
using a digital micro-Vickers hardness tester. Ten measurements
were performed for each testing specimen to calculate an average
value of the hardness. The electrical conductivity measurement was
performed by using the eddy current method according to the GB/T
12966-2008. The SCC resistances were evaluated by using the slow
strain rate tests (SSRT) with a corrosive environment of 3.5% NaCl,
referring to the GB/T15970.7-2000. The accelerated EXCO tests were
carried out according to the ASTM G34-01. The corrosive solution
was prepared by 4.0 M NaCl + 0.5 M KNO3 + 0.1 M HNO3 . The specific
preparation method was that dissolved 234 g NaCl, 50 g KNO3 in
water, and added 6.3 ml concentrated HNO3 (70 wt.%) then diluted
to 1L. The corrosion surfaces of the specimens after EXCO tests were
observed by JEOL JCM-6000 scanning electron microscope (SEM).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Evolution of microstructures
Fig. 3 shows the precipitate microstructures of AA7050 with
various tempers. Fig. 3(a), (d) and (e) refers to three initial
microstructures of the alloy for CAF, i.e., the solution, retrogression
and re-solution tempers, respectively. Fig. 3(b) and (c) represents
the microstructures of the alloy with T6 and T73 tempers, respec-
tively. As shown in Fig. 3(a), in the solution temper, no obvious
transgranular precipitate and grain boundary precipitate appear.
This indicates that the intermetallics of as-rolled AA7050 have been
dissolved by the solution treatment. Fig. 3(b) shows that AA7050-
T6 has abundant fine transgranular precipitates and continuously
distributed grain boundary precipitates. By comparing between
Fig. 3(b) and (d), it can be found that the alloy with retrogression
temper has less transgranular precipitates and slightly discontin-
uous grain boundary precipitates than that with T6 temper. This
indicates that the role of short-time retrogression treatment on the
dissolution of precipitates is limited. Fig. 3(c) shows that AA7050-
T73 has coarse transgranular precipitates and discontinuous grain
boundary precipitates with large spacing. The comparison between
Fig. 3(c) and (e) shows that, through re-solution treatment, the den-
sity of the transgranular precipitates is decreased considerably, and
the size of grain boundary precipitates are reduced. It demonstrates
that the re-solution treatment can dissolve the precipitates observ-
ably. It is worth noting that, although the solution treatment and
re-solution treatment have the same temperature and duration,
there are obvious difference between Fig. 3(a) and (e). The reason
may be attributed to that the solution temper is from hot rolled
temper, but the re-solution temper is after over-aged temper.
Fig. 4 represents the precipitate microstructures of the creep
aged AA7050 with different initial tempers. Through creep aging,
the precipitate microstructures of the alloy with initial temper of
solution is similar to that of T6 temper, namely fine and homo-
geneous transgranular precipitates, and continuously distributed
grain boundary precipitates, as shown in Fig. 4(a). Fig. 4(b) shows
the growth of precipitates in the alloy with initial temper of ret-
rogression during creep aging process, resulting in the big sized
transgranular precipitates and more discontinuous grain bound-
ary precipitates. Since the re-solution treatment takes AA7050-T73
to a supersaturate solid solution state, the re-precipitation can be
occurred in the creep aging process. Thus, in Fig. 4(c) it can be seen
that there are many fine precipitates in the matrix of the creep aged
128 C. Lei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132

Fig. 3. TEM images of precipitate microstructures of AA7050 with various tempers: (a) solution; (b) T6; (c) T73; (d) retrogression; (e) re-solution.

specimen with initial temper of re-solution, and the largest sized
grain boundary precipitates discontinuously distributed with the
widest spacing.
3.2. Changing of multiple types of properties
3.2.1. Creep deformation
Fig. 5 shows the creep strain and creep rate curves of AA7050
with various initial tempers during creep aging process under
165 ◦ C and 250 MPa. At the end of testing, the specimen with ini-
tial temper of retrogression has the largest creep deformation, but
that of re-solution has the smallest one. The main reasons of this
result is because that the larger sized transgranular precipitates of
the creep aged specimen with initial temper of retrogression can be
passed by the dislocation, however, the fine transgranular precipi-
tates of the creep aged specimen with initial temper of re-solution
can only be sheared leading to the more difficult creep deforma-
tion. In addition, as shown in Fig. 5, the creep rate curves show that
the creep aging processes of the specimens with initial tempers
of solution and retrogression have entered into the creep tertiary
 C. Lei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132 129

Fig. 4. TEM images of precipitate microstructures of creep aged AA7050 with various initial tempers: (a) solution; (b) retrogression; (c) re-solution.

0.30 0.08 the maximized promotion by creep aging process. Due to its fine
Creep strain:
transgranular precipitates similar to the T6 temper, the creep aged
solution
0.25 specimen with initial temper of solution has the highest yield
retrogression
0.06 strength and tensile strength. Compared with other initial tem-
re-solution
Creep rate: pers, the specimen with initial temper of retrogression has the
0.20
Creep rate (%/h)
Creep strain (%)

solution highest strength before creep aging. However, due to the coars-
retrogression ening of precipitates during creep aging, the mechanical strength
0.15 0.04
re-solution of this specimen is significantly lower. Its yield strength and ten-
sile strength are approximately 18% and 9% lower than those of
0.10 the creep aged specimen with initial temper of solution. For re-
0.02 solution temper, the re-precipitation takes place in the creep aging
0.05 process, thus the fine transgranular precipitates leads to the higher
strength of the creep aged specimen with initial temper of re-
0.00 0.00 solution. Its yield strength and tensile strength are only 4% and 2%
0 4 8 12 16 20 lower than those of the creep aged specimen with initial temper of
Time (h) solution. In addition, the elongations of the creep aged specimens
Fig. 5. Creep strain and creep rate curves of AA7050 with various initial tempers
with various initial tempers correspond to a sequence of retrogres-
during creep aging under 165 ◦ C and 250 MPa. sion > re-solution > solution. Obviously, that is a reverse order to the
sequence of mechanical strengths of the creep aged specimens.
Fig. 6(b) displays the evolutions of hardness of the specimens
stage when the material is no longer applicable to the stable CAF,
with various initial tempers during creep aging process. From the
while the specimen with initial temper of re-solution owns longer
hardness curves, it can be seen that, for any initial temper, the hard-
creep stable stage.
ness of the alloy reaches a peak value very soon, and then decreases
slowly with time. The creep aged specimen with initial temper of
3.2.2. Mechanical properties solution has the highest hardness, while the lowest value can be
Fig. 6(a) illustrates the yield strength, tensile strength and elon- found in that of retrogression. For the creep aged specimen with
gation of the specimens with various initial tempers before and initial temper of re-solution, its hardness is very close to that of
after creep aging process. It can be seen that the mechanical solution. These comparisons for hardness of the specimens with
strength of the specimen with initial temper of solution obtains
130 C. Lei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132

Table 2
(a) 800 20 rtf values of creep aged AA7050 with various initial tempers.
Yield strength before and after creep aging Initial temper Solution Retrogression Re-solution
Tensile strengthbefore and after creep aging
Elongationbefore and after creep aging 16 rtf value 0.724 0.903 0.956
600

Elongation (%)
Strength (MPa)

12
tial temper of re-solution has the maximum conductivity, which
400 outnumbers that of solution and retrogression about 16% and 5%.
8 In the SSRT, the index rtf is commonly used to evaluate the SCC
resistance, which is calculated by (Lin et al., 2006):
200
4 tfe
rtf = (1)
tfc

0 0 where tfe is the measurement of time-to-failure determined in the

Solution Retrogression Re-solution corrosive environment, and tfc is the corresponding value deter-
Initial tempers
mined in the atmospheric environment. The closer that the value
(b) 200 of rtf is to 1, the better SCC resistance is.
Table 2 lists the values of rtf for creep aged AA7050 with various
initial tempers. This implies that both the creep aged specimens
180
with initial tempers of retrogression and re-solution are less sensi-
tive to SCC than that of solution, and the creep aged specimen with
Hardness (HV)

160 initial temper of re-solution has the best SCC resistance.

In the accelerated EXCO tests, the corrosion products gradually
140 break away from the specimen surface. Fig. 8(a), (b) and (c) shows
the corroded surface morphologies of the creep aged AA7050 with
solution various initial tempers. When the creep aged specimen with initial
120 retrogression temper of solution is continuously immersed in the EXCO solution
re-solution
for 48 h, a large amount of corroded layers are peeled off from the
100 metal surface. For the creep aged specimen with initial temper of
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 retrogression, some cracks can be found on the metal surface. In
Time (h)
contrast, the creep aged specimen with initial temper of re-solution
Fig. 6. Mechanical properties of AA7050 with various initial tempers: (a) strength has the slightest surface corrosion, and some tiny surface cracks
and elongation before and after creep aging; (b) evolutions of hardness. can be observed. It can be seen that both the creep aged specimens
with initial tempers of retrogression and re-solution have better
EXCO resistance than that of solution, especially the creep aged
specimen with initial temper of re-solution has the least exfoliation
40
susceptibility.
The corrosion degree can be described by the EXCO ratings
Electrical conductivity (%IACS)

according to different corrosion stages. The total EXCO behavior is

35
30
25
0 2
Fig. 7. Evolution of electrical conductivity of AA7050 with various initial tempers
during creep aging.
various initial tempers before and after creep aging are completely
consistent with the results from mechanical strength tests.
3.2.3. Electrical conductivity, SCC and EXCO resistances
Tsai and Chuang (1996) determined that the electrical conduc-
tivity of aluminum alloy may serve as an indicator of SCC resistance,
so the electrical conductivity tests were carried out as the circum-
stantial evidence for subsequent SCC resistance tests. Fig. 7 shows
the evolution of electrical conductivity for AA7050 with various ini-
tial tempers during creep aging process. It can be see that, for any
initial temper, the electrical conductivity of alloy increases with
time. At the end of creep aging process, the specimen with ini-
commonly classified into six stages including no obvious corrosion
(expressed as N), slight pitting corrosion (P), growth of pitting cor-
rosion (EA), slight surface corrosion (EB), lifted surface layers and
blisters (EC), severe peeled off layers and metal loss (ED). Based on
solution the observations of surface morphologies at different times during
retrogression EXCO tests, Fig. 8(d) shows the EXCO rating evolutions of the creep
re-solution aged AA7050 with various initial tempers. It is observed that the
EXCO rating increases with the immersion time.
It is well known that the corrosion susceptibility of the Al-Zn-
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Time (h) Mg-Cu alloys has close relationship with grain boundary structure.
The grain boundary with continuously distributed precipitates
might become an anodic corrosion channel, resulting in the gal-
vanic reaction between the anodic precipitates and aluminum
matrix (Lin et al., 2014). Li et al. (2009) reported that the contin-
uous grain boundary precipitates are noted as being anode to the
aluminum matrix in a corrosive environment. Therefore, the creep
aged AA7050 with initial temper of solution is susceptible to EXCO
and SCC. For the specimens with initial temper of retrogression
and re-solution, underwent creep aging, their discontinuous grain
boundary precipitates with large spacing cut off the anodic corro-
sion channel. Therefore, these two specimens have less corrosion
susceptibility, especially the re-solution temper. The SCC mecha-
nism of AA7050 is also considered to be the effect of hydrogen
embrittlement except the anodic dissolution (Lin et al., 2006). The
small and continuous grain boundary precipitates could not to be
as the trapping sites for hydrogen atoms which will concentrate on
the grain boundary, therefore, the SCC occurs easily in the creep
 C. Lei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132 131

Fig. 8. EXCO morphologies of creep aged AA7050 with various initial tempers: (a) solution; (b) retrogression; (c) re-solution; and (d) corresponding EXCO rating evolutions.

aged specimen with initial temper of solution. However, the large

and discontinuous grain precipitates will become to the trapping
sites for hydrogen atoms, resulting in the excellent SCC resistance
of the creep aged AA7050 with the initial tempers of retrogression
or re-solution.

3.3. Comprehensive evaluation by multiple indexes

Fig. 9 reveals the different material properties of AA7050 with

various initial tempers after creep aging of 18 h under 165 ◦ C and
250 MPa. At the end of creep aging, the specimen with initial temper
of re-solution is still in the steady creep stage. This means that it
has the best creep resistance which can afford longer creep aging
period. After creep aging, the tensile strength and hardness of the
specimen with initial temper of re-solution are very close to the
maximum values of those of solution, and much more than those of
retrogression. In addition, both the best SCC and EXCO resistances
appear in the specimen with initial temper of re-solution.
In view of the comprehensive requirement of properties
improving beyond precise shape forming, by evaluating above mul-
tiple indexes, a conclusion can be drawn that the re-solution is the
best choice of initial temper for AA7050 in CAF under the given
conditions, i.e., the temperature of 165 ◦ C and the stress of 250 MPa.

4. Conclusions and remark

Fig. 9. Multiple indexes of properties of creep aged AA7050 with various initial
The dependences of microstructures and properties on initial tempers.

tempers of AA7050 under CAF conditions are studied. The main

findings can be summarized as follows:
(1) Three initial tempers of AA7050 are obtained by various heat
treatment methods. For solution temper, there is no obvious
precipitate in the matrix of aluminum alloy. The retrogression
temper is converted from T6 temper. In retrogression process,
the density of transgranular precipitates is slightly reduced
and grain boundary precipitates become slightly discontinu-
ous. The re-solution temper is transformed from T73 temper.
For re-solution temper, due to the dissolution of precipitates in
re-solution treatment, only a few precipitates can be observed
in the matrix and the grain boundary precipitates become small.
(2) The initial tempers have greatly impacts on the microstruc-
ture evolutions of the alloy during creep aging. The creep
132 C. Lei et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 239 (2017) 125–132
aged specimen with initial temper of solution has fine and
homogeneous transgranular precipitates, and continuous grain
boundary precipitates. The transgranular precipitates of the
creep aged specimen with initial temper of retrogression grow
up obviously, and the spacing of grain boundary precipitates
broadens. The creep aged specimen with initial temper of re-
solution regains fine transgranular precipitates and its grain
boundary precipitates have the widest spacing.
(3) In view of the different sizes of transgranular precipitates,
the mechanical properties of the creep aged specimens with
various initial tempers are different. After creep aging, the spec-
imens with initial tempers of solution and re-solution show
almost same high mechanical properties than that of retro-
gression. The discontinuous grain boundary precipitates lead
to the better EXCO and SCC resistance of both creep aged spec-
imens with initial tempers of retrogression and re-solution.
Conversely, the continuous grain boundary precipitates result
in the higher corrosion susceptibility of the creep aged speci-
men with initial temper of solution.
(4) In order to achieve material properties improving while
precisely shape forming, the comprehensive evaluation by mul-
tiple indexes of properties indicates that the re-solution is the
best choice of initial temper for AA7050 in CAF. After creep
aging, the specimen with initial temper of re-solution can
obtain the excellent corrosion resistance under the premise
of guaranteeing the mechanical strength. It is noted that, the
above conclusion is drawn under the given thermal-mechanical
conditions. Since the initial tempers have significant effects on
both microstructures and properties of the materials, the CAF
procedures should be carefully reconsidered for the materi-
als with certain initial tempers, which of cause need further
investigations.
Acknowledgements
The research is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China for Key Program (51235010), the National Sci-
ence Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (51522509), Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (3102014KYJD001), the
Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES,
MatProFuture, project no: 318968) within the 7th EC Framework
Programme (FP7) and the 111 Project (B08040).
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