Precipitation in original Duralumin A-U4G versus modern 2017A alloy

Brunet, Magali; Malard, Benoit; Ratel-Ramond, Nicolas; Deshayes, Christophe; Joulié, Sébastien; Warot-Fonrose, Bénédicte; Sciau, Philippe; Douin, Joël; De Geuser, Frédéric; Deschamps, Alexis

Materialia, 2019, vol 8pp. 100429

DOI:10.1016/j.mtla.2019.100429

Abstract

Precipitation in Duralumin, a historic quaternary alloy of the type: Al–Cu–Mg–Si, was never fully studied nor observed by current electron microscopy techniques. This article presents the full characterization and comparison of two alloys: a Duralumin (A-U4G) from the 1950s collected on a vintage aircraft and its modern equivalent: a 2017A alloy. The as-received and peak-aging states were analysed with DSC, SAXS and TEM advanced techniques. It is shown that old Duralumin and modern 2017A present a similar nanoprecipitation in the as-received state and behave similarly upon artificial aging. As opposed to what has been reported in the past, three types of precipitates participating in hardening were found upon aging: ?’-Al2Cu, Q’(Q)-AlCuMgSi and ?-Al2Cu.

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